Shadow Gale
by Impure Perfection
Summary: When Naruto fails the academy for the second time and is having a bad day a certain ANBU shows up and helps him. After some hardcore summer school Naruto takes the academy, and the ninja world by storm. M for violence, language and of course future lemons
1. Chapter 1

**Now I invisioned this entire story line during a mountian dew induced high. What is a mountain dew induced high? Well it is the result of drinking two and a half liters of mountain dew in under twinty minutes because of a dare, eating several doughnuts. At three in the morning. Because I saw it while half asleep and shot up with caffinee the updating speed of this story may be a bit... sporadic at best. It will get finished! Just not as regularly as some may wish. Now onto the story!**

**Impure Perfection**

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><p><strong>Plank<strong>

Had you been a one of the countless white fluffy clouds that lazily floated over the quiet village of Konoha you might have seen an amusing sight. One boy with neon yellow blonde hair, dressed in a blazing orange that you could actually see from the height of a cloud, storming through the city. Apparently something or someone had annoyed the boy because he didn't walk, more like he stomped his way down the street. The villagers that would normally mock and pester him with glares avoid him and gave him a wide berth today as all of them felt a murderous aura coming off the boy in almost visible waves. Turning off the street and into a building the boy would then disappear from your sight as a cloud but as my story is far from over let us leave cloud view to see this story unfold until its end.

Naruto Uzumaki was having a_ really _bad day. Since the grouchy grocery store lady only sold him rotten, or close to it, milk that was all he had to drink. Being stuck in the bathroom, particularly on the toilet, for half the morning had made him late to class, again, which meant he missed out on half of the graduation exam that took place today. After getting chewed out for a good twenty minutes in front of the entire class he bombed the jutsu portion of the test all thanks to the fact that he still couldn't correctly make a clone. No thanks to the teachers that refused to teach him anything unless the hokage forced them to do it or it was absolutely necessary that the _demon _know it.

So now he was storming down the streets of Konoha with the intention of filling up his ill stocked weapon pouches so that he could train himself into the ground for next year. Oh yes he was going to try again. And no matter who or what got in his way he was going to graduate even if it killed him.

About two buildings away was the Black Dragon. A mildly known ninja store that was of average size. It had two rooms with the larger one being the shopping and display room where the customers were allowed to shop around as much as they wanted. The other room was the store room where all the extra equipment was stored as well as where the safe containing the days earning was locked away at night. The front of the store was a simple wooden sign with the name hanging over the door and a large window display case holding several flashy tools. Right inside the door was the check out counter where the shop keeper kept a diligent watch so that no one would dare rip off his store.

Upon spotting the weapons store Naruto walked right in and marched over to the shelves of weapons and slowly but surely a mountain of weapons grew in his arms. The entire time the cashier watched him move about the store with a look of disdain and horribly concealed anger on his face.

Having gotten everything he could possibly need and probably some after that Naruto walked up to the check out counter and set it all on the counter for the man to ring up the price. That was when he got his first look at the six foot two hulking man made entirely out of muscle and wearing a white sleeveless shirt and brown cargo pants. The expression on the man's face soured Naruto's mood even worse. He had seen _that _look on countless people's faces. And every time he saw it the person giving him that look would always either over charge him, kick him out, or sell him faulty products. Well today was shitty enough without some stuck up old man making it even worse.

"Yes may I help you?" The man asked nonchalantly as if he didn't see the hulking pile of ninja gear that was accumulated right in front of him. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the man.

"Yes you may. I need to buy some ninja gear." The man gave a snort and looked over the tools before a cruel grin spread across his face.

"Ha these tools aren't _fit_ for you. Here let me go get you something more _fitting _for someone of your _skills_." Before Naruto could protest the man walked into the back storeroom out of sight of Naruto. A second or two later there was a snapping sound and not to long after the massive man walked back out with a sugary sweet smile on his face. "Here you go sir. Your _weapon._" From behind his back he pulled out a three foot long piece of a board of wood. It was obviously what had caused the snapping sound a second or two ago. The plank of wood was just a basic board maybe a inch thick and started out at about a food wide. However after about seven inches the board had been broken in half and started to gradually thin out until it reached the end of the wood. In the store keepers defense it actually did look like a wooden sword, albeit a crummy one at that, but it still looked vaguely like one.

Naruto took one look at the piece of wood before shaking his head and glaring at the man who glared back just as fiercely.

"Hell NO! I have the money for the real tools and I am not paying for that!" Naruto shouted while pointing at the piece of wood. The man growled and hurled it at Naruto who easily caught it and held it to his side."Well then get out! Cause I am not going to be the one responsible for equipping the demon with real weapons. And if payment is your problem then call it a favor and I will give that to you for free!" Naruto growled and his vision started to bleed red. Before he lost his cool he took two steps back and in a flash all the anger and hate on his face vanished only to be replaced by a carefree grin.

"Okay Thanks!" The store keeper was totally and utterly confused. "But first." The blonde genin hopeful stepped closer to the window that displayed some of the flashier ninja gear at the front of the store. The man's eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen when Naruto grabbed the piece of wood with both hands at the think end and cocked it back ready to swing. "Let me test it out!" With that he swung with all his might and the plank of wood smashed into the glass.

When the wood impacted with the glass the window exploded outwards with enough force for some of the glass shards to fly all the way across the street. The shop keeper roared with rage but before he could move far Naruto was already out the door and running down the street at full speed.

"YOU DAMN BRAT!" The man shouted after the quickly shrinking orange blur that was fleeing at almost impressive speeds. Naruto grinned at having gotten away successfully though his elation was quickly ruined as sure enough fate decided that nothing could go his way. What the gods decided to use to play with him was the back of a green spandex wearing boy that Naruto had just run head into at full speed. Groaning and sitting up while holding his head Naruto saw that it was one of his classmates that had graduated earlier that day. The boy had a hideous black bowl cut hair style and two massive bushy things that he called eyebrows sitting atop of his face. To top of the fashion statement he was wearing a full body neon green spandex suit that screamed 'HOMO!' to all who saw it. The color blind genin was called…

"Oh hey Lee! Hehe didn't see you there." The boy now known as Lee jumped up and offered his hand out to Naruto who gladly accepted it with his right hand as his left one was still clutching the plank of wood.

"DO NOT WORRY ABOUT IT MY YOUTHFUL FRIEND! WHERE WERE YOU RUNNING TO IN SUCH A YOUTHFUL MANNER?" Lee shouted loud enough to make all nearby wince and cover their ears while glaring at the boy. Naruto shrugged and looked down at the plank of wood he was still caring around with him. That low down good for nothing store owner hadn't even given him a new piece of wood, this was an old and faded almost grayish looking half of a board of wood. It even had three holes where the nails had been removed from the big side of the board showing that it had been used and neglected for most of its life. Staring down at the beaten and ignored piece of wood Naruto made a decision right then and there.

"Hey Lee do you have a kunai I could use?" The spandex wearing boy opened his mouth to say something before pausing and running his hands all over his spandex wearing body in ways that sent shivers down Naruto spines. When Lee finished feeling himself up he shook his head so hard Naruto was sure it was gonna fall off.

"NO I DO NOT MY YOUTHFUL FRIEND! TO MAKE UP FOR THIS LACK OF WEAPONRY I SHALL NOW AND FOREVER CARRY TWO HUNDRED KUNAI ! IF I FAIL TO DO THAT I SHALL CARRY FOUR HUNDRED KUNAI! IF I FAIL…"

A gloved fist slamming into his skull shut Lee up real quick. Following the arm the fist was attached to Naruto saw a girl he was rather familiar with berating Lee for always shouting. She had a light brown hair that was done up into two tight buns that sat symmetrically on her head. She was wearing a pink high collared sleeveless shirt and a pair of blue ninja pants that stopped midway between her knees and her ankles with her ninja pouch secured tightly to her right leg. Naruto knew her as well she was…

"Oh hey Tenten!"

The bun haired girl paused in her fussing at Lee long enough to wave at Naruto before returning to her nagging. With Lee thoroughly punished Tenten huffed before facing Naruto fully and pulling out a kunai and tossing it to him.

"Here you go you can use mine. Though why don't you have one of your own?" Naruto looked at her with a deadpan expression before mumbling about corrupt store owners and paint bombing them later. Tenten raised an eyebrow but Naruto either ignored her or just didn't take notice of it as he sat down in the middle of the street with both legs crossed and the thick end of the plank of wood in his lap. Naruto raised the kunai high in the air dramatically before hacking at the thick end of the plank for a few seconds with splinters flying everywhere as he hurriedly chopped at the wood.

A few seconds later and he hopped back up holding the newly shaped piece of wood above his head victoriously. Tenten and even Lee were both confused at his actions and examined the piece of wood closer to try and understand what was so important. Nothing had changed about it. It was still just a three foot long massive splinter that had come from a broken board of wood. The only indication Naruto had even done anything to it was that what used to be the thick side was now carved into a rough looking handle that was just big enough for two hands to fit. Bringing the 'sword' back down Naruto looked it over several times before tossing the kunai back to Tenten and then looking back at Lee.

"Hey Lee you got any training bandages I could use?" Nodding Lee quickly reached into a pocket hidden on his jumpsuit in a place Naruto probably didn't want to know about. Thrusting his hands out with his usual vigor Lee revealed a single role of white bandages resting in the palm of his hands. Before The boy could start to speak Naruto did. "Thanks. You wouldn't happen to have orange by any chance would you?" Naruto asked hopefully. Yet another self frisking that left Naruto feeling queasy and Tenten thoroughly disgusted revealed that Lee did not have another color. But he did have stack of white bandages easily half as tall as Naruto was.

"I DO NOT! I SWEAR TO YOU MY FRIEND I SHALL FIND YOU YOUR DESIRED COLOR! IF I FAIL TO DO THIS…" Naruto ignored the rest of his rant and took the roll from Lee's still outstretched hands and once again sat down on the ground with his 'sword' resting in his lap. Tenten ignored Lee's rant as well in favor or watching as Naruto tightly wrapped the entire length of the piece of wood with the white bandages. The only part still visible after he was done was the handle which was still the same ugly grayish color.

"There." Naruto said softly and stood back up holding what now looked remarkably similar to a wrapped sword. (Think when Ichigo's sword is wrapped in bleach except change the size and color of the cloth) Both Tenten and Lee leaned in closer to examine it and had to admit it didn't look half bad but still the fact remained. It was still just a piece of wood in wraps.

"What is taking so long?" A cold and cool voice spoke in a controlled monotone from behind Tenten and Lee. Looking at where the voice came from all three saw a tall boy with pale skin and solid pupil less white eyes. He had a bandana under his headband covering a larger portion of his forehead than the usual headband would cover. The new comer had long brown hair that was almost female in appearance. His clothes consisted of an off white high collared t-shirt and blue ninja pants with a shuriken holster secured tightly around his right leg. "Lee, Tenten, why did you… Oh." The white eyed boy paused when he saw Naruto. Naruto growled and his hand instinctively tightened around the handle of his sword upon seeing the so-called 'prodigy' of his class.

"Neji." Naruto growled out and the boy named Neji just brushed him off.

"I see, the dobe is holding us back by being a distraction. If you are done entertaining the drop out we need to continue on to meet our _sensei_." The Hyuuga prodigy stressed the word sensei while glaring at Naruto.

That was the last straw. His day, no screw that his entire messed up life had been a living hell. He didn't care if the two ANBU that were probably watching him as they always did reported him to the hokage. He didn't care if he lost his chance to go back to the academy. He didn't care about much of anything at that moment in time. In a flash he took a step forward, swung the sword upwards faster than he ever remembered being able to move, and knocked Neji Hyuuga flat on his ass.

A paper thin cut stretched from the base of Neji's jaw across his cheek and ended right before his nose started. Eyes wide with surprise for a brief instant Neji looked up at the blonde boy who was standing over him with the bandaged sword hovering a hair's breadth away from his left eye. Naruto's usually happy and carefree face was a visage of pure rage that shook Neji to his core. What used to be an ocean of never ending warmth was now a frozen glacier colder than the dark side of the moon. Blue eyes filled with a freezing rage glared down at Neji who finally managed to recover enough to activate his bloodline.

As his eye sight enhanced itself thanks to his bloodline Neji was shocked for the second time within a second. Naruto's sword was nearly bursting with chakra. Through his byakugan Neji saw that the sword was actually vibrating just the slightest from the amount of chakra being forced through it. The sword itself contained more chakra in a square inch of its blade than Neji did in his entire body.

"I don't care who you think you are, what rank you are, what clan you come from, how much money you have, or who your parents are. I don't care if you're the fucking hokage! Don't you _ever_ talk down to me again or I swear to kami I will rip your stuck up ass to so many pieces that sanctified rod will fall right out of it." Naruto growled out in a tone laced with more killer intent than any of the three genin had ever felt in their young lives. Pulling the sword away from Neji's face and resting it across his shoulders Naruto turned and walked away from the three dumb struck genin. Not even Neji said anything as Naruto walked down the street with a blade of wood wrapped in bandages and filled with more chakra than Neji would ever be able to muster.

8888

The two ANBU who watched the entire thing were about to leave to tell the Hokage about how the demon had beat up a genin for no reason when a hand landed on each of their shoulders freezing them in place.

"Now I don't think the hokage needs to know about this." The dog masked ANBU with spiky silver hair said in a laid back tone. "Knowing about how you two constantly neglect your duties to follow around a young boy on the other hand…" Both the crane and sparrow masked ANBU vanished as fast as possible both rushing back to the locations they were _supposed_ to be watching. Shaking his head dog silently watched as Naruto marched back towards the academy. Following the boy without ever letting him know he was being tailed dog watched for almost an hour and a half as Naruto practiced using the sword he had been carrying earlier.

Now being ANBU dog was required to know how to use a sword but even without being a pro he was more than certain Naruto was doing it all wrong. Sighing and moving to leave he paused when he saw the bandaged sword actually left a scratch on the wooden post. That peaked his interest. He had been almost certain that Naruto had been practicing with the wrapped sword to prevent it from being dulled yet if it was still cutting then something was amiss. Opening the eye he almost always kept shut dog let out an audible gasp at what he saw.

Shaking his head dog looked around with his new eye open for a few seconds before closing the eye and looking at the world through his normal eye once again. Vanishing in a shushin dog reappeared standing on the three foot thick log scaring Naruto witless.

Having a masked man suddenly appearing in front of you does that you know. Before the blonde could say anything dog spoke.

"That's a mighty sharp sword you have there if it cuts while still wrapped up. Must be made of some impressive material."

Now there is a forbidden art that I must tell you Naruto is the master of. It is an art which, if mastered properly, can get you out of the tightest situations and make you friends faster than anything else on this earth. It is an ancient and very powerful art that very few are blessed enough to conquer. Naruto is a natural born, grade A, prodigy and master of this art. It is the art of Bullshit no Jutsu.

"You bet! This really nice store owner let me have it after I spent most of the day helping him remodel his store." Smirking beneath his mask dog was impressed. It was an actually plausible story and if he had not been watching Naruto for almost the entire day he might have bought it. But he had been so he wasn't buying.

"So by _nice_ you mean wouldn't sell you anything. By _all day_ you mean about two seconds. And by _remodeling_ you mean you shattered his storefront window. That about sum it up?" Naruto's grin fell and his shoulders sagged as he sighed.

"Your gonna report me to the old man aren't you?" The blonde boy asked dejectedly. As the dog masked ANBU stood there looking at the defeated boy a grin spread across his face beneath his mask where the boy couldn't see it.

"I could do that." Dog stated watching as Naruto's shoulders slumped forwards further. "Or…" Hopping off the log as Naruto's head snapped up to look at him with hope filled eyes dog leaned up against the pole. "I could teach you how to use your _special_ sword so you don't hurt anyone." If possible the cerulean blue eyes got even happier and then that joy spilled over into Naruto's body.

"ALRIGHT!" Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs leaping into the air and pumping his fist into the air.

"Calm down I will only train you on one condition." Naruto froze mid air before falling down onto the ground in a heap. Jumping back up with determination in eyes Naruto didn't say a word he just watched dog carefully. "I will train you, if you can make it to training ground seven in the next ten minutes." To his credit the blonde boy didn't ask questions, didn't hesitate, or think about it. He instantly took off full speed across town towards the designated training ground. Laughing slightly dog vanished in a leaf shushin.

Unknown to him the instant that Naruto was out of dog's sight the blonde genin ran straight down a dead end alley still going full bore. Without a flash, a puff or smoke, or even a slight flare of chakra Naruto vanished into the shadows. And reappeared on the edge of the village not two minutes later. Dashing out of the shadows and across the line of sunlight that separated the village wall from the forest Naruto cleared the distance in no time. Once again as soon as he set foot into the shadows he vanished with his white bandaged sword being the last thing you would have seen of him.

Dog arrived and sat down on a branch in the tree in the middle of the training ground seven ready for a nice long wait. As he reached into his pocket and pulled out his favorite little orange book he sensed a slight use of chakra to his right. Looking in that direction the ANBU nearly fell out of the tree in shock at seeing a panting Naruto run into the training ground.

'_That was only five minutes!'_ Naruto ran right up to the tree and smiled up at him.

"I-I made it silver sensei!" Dog quirked an eyebrow at the nickname but decided it would work as he had no intentions of removing his mask anytime soon.

"So you did. Now shall we begin?"

"Hai!" And with that, Naruto discovered that hell did in fact exist on earth.

8888

Midnight That Night

A tired, no tired doesn't do justice. A utterly drained Naruto slowly hauled his dirty and rather beat up self to his apartment complex. Resting on his shoulders was his white blade held in place by his right arm which hung limply from the blade. The blonde came to a stop at the base of the steps and groaned. Cursing both his new sensei and the fact he lived on the fourth floor of the apartment complex. It took nearly ten minutes for him to get up the will to lift his left foot and move it up to the first step.

Every step was agony. His body felt like it was a massive chunk of lead heated to the point of being uncomfortable yet not unbearable. The exhausted genin hopeful was silently cursing his new sensei to the deepest darkest pits of hell. In fact the boy was almost certain that his sensei was some sort of demon come straight out of hades just to torture him for all the pranks he pulled. Thoughts of what his silver haired sensei looked like beneath his mask occupied the boy's mind the remainder of the way up the stairs. It wasn't until his foot went through the air that was supposed to be the next step that Naruto came back to reality. Looking around he saw that he had somehow managed to reach the top of the stairs.

A wordless groan of victory and the blonde hobbled over to his door before knocking it open by letting his head fall against it. Sure enough the door gave in and opened to a small room filled with empty ramen cups, to-go food bins, and clothes scattered all over the place. Kicking the door shut behind him he ignored the bright red spray paint on the walls that told him to drop dead, burn for all eternity, or go back to wherever the 'demons' come from. Marching over to his room he fell face first into the mattress not worried at all that the bed collapsed and he ended up laying on a mattress on the ground. Soothing blackness that was sleep welcomed him with opens arms. So Naruto fell asleep. Still dressed in his orange jumpsuit drenched in sweat. Still clutching his new sword in his right hand. Still wearing his now wore out shoes.

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Four Hours Later

Naruto woke up with a jerk as the sound of someone banging on his door woke him from what he had intended to be a mini death. Grumbling he hauled himself out of bed and towards the front door his sword trailing behind him on the ground as he drug it around with him. Opening the door he saw the still exuberant Lee saluting him.

Lee opened his mouth and was probably about to wake the entire neighbor hood when he had a sword shoved into his mouth preventing him from so much as mumbling.

"Lee." Naruto growled out in a tone just above a whisper. "If you talk even a bit louder than I am right now I am going to cut off your tongue and feed it to the dogs down the street. Now what possible reason could you have for being up at this ungodly hour and waking me up?" Removing the sword from the spandex wearing boy's mouth Naruto grouchily awaited a response.

"Yosh!" Lee hissed out in a whisper, somehow still sounding as excited as when he shouted. "I found you what you requested my friend!" Sure enough he whipped out a single roll of neon orange bandages roughly the same color as the blazing orange jacket Naruto still wore. "As for why I am up isn't it obvious? I am doing my pre, early early morning workout, workout! Would you care to join me?" Lee asked even more enthusiastically. Naruto glared at the boy for a second before sighing and taking the roll of orange training bandages.

"No I don't." He was just about to slam the door shut when he paused. "And Lee, if you ever wake me up again and the hokage _isn't_ summoning me, the village _isn't_ under attack, or there is _not_ a harem of bikini wearing women dancing down main street covered in tanning oil, I swear I am going to cut you into so many pieces your gonna make humpty dumpty look lucky. Do you understand?"

"I DO MY YOUTHFUL FRIEND!" Lee shouted at the top of his lungs with a salute before vanishing faster than Naruto could react. Slamming the door shut and throwing both his sword and the bandages onto the kitchen table Naruto marched back to bed and flopped down on it. Not ten seconds later Naruto heard and felt the landlord marching up the stairs. When the beating and fussing began Naruto pulled a pillow over his head and groaned loudly.

'_WHY? WHY!' _Naruto mentally whined. _'I can practically see were the landlord is standing with how loud he is yelling.'_ For a second the blonde boy laid there listening as the landlord threatened to throw him out if he didn't be quiet at night. Then Naruto jerked upwards with a huge grin on his face. _'I wonder…'_ Cerulean eyes filled with curiosity slowly wandered over to the orange bandages laying on the dinning room table.


	2. Chapter 2

**Fox-sama: Na this is just gonna be a straight up NaruXIno story no three way here. Shadow thing is my secret. Will be revealed eventually but not for a while.**

**MKterra: You guessed it the shop keeper just gave him some random board that he had in the back. That does not sound like a good idea to me so i am gonna avoid that one unless i am severley out of ideas for this story. If i die i am sueing you for everything you have.**

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><p><strong>Pick a number<strong>

Dog slowly let out a breath as he sat down on the tree in the middle of training ground seven and began to wait for his temporary student. And Naruto was now his student for certain. The hokage had been firm on that point.

**Flashback**

The hokage stirred his cup of tea as he rubbed his temples trying to get rid of the headache Kakashi had given him. It was one in the morning, the hokage was in his underwear, a nasty sight to see I might add, and one of his most trusted ANBU had just woken him up with depressing news. Kakashi was calmly sitting across the table from the down trodden hokage waiting for the aged leader to make a decision. He absentmindedly moved his hand to the cut in his ANBU outfit. It was a paper thin cut right over his jugular. If anyone ever doubted Sarutobi's skills all they had to do was ask Kakashi what happens when you wake the 'Professor' up at one in the morning.

"Let me see if I got all that." Sarutobi started. "Naruto-kun's teachers were leaving huge gaps in his training so that it would be nearly impossible for him to actually graduate the academy. He has no inclination as to what can be done with chakra other than jutsu. He thought it was called cakra. He has no understanding of genjutsu, how to cast it or how to cancel it. He knows no ninjutsu aside from the transformation. And to top it off his taijutsu consist of nothing more than brawling. That about sum it up?"

"Yep!" Kakashi said cheerily as he gave the grey haired old man his signature eye smile. Sarutobi sighed once more before taking a long sip of tea and sitting back in his chair with his eyes shut. His mind a whirlwind of activity as he went over the different possibilities and problems that this problem could and would create for him. If Danzo heard of this then the old war hawk would insist that he teach the boy and Sarutobi would be damned before he let that happen. The council wouldn't care about it at all and just brush it aside saying it was just his old age worrying over nothing. Arrogant pigs. That left just the shinobi sector to try and fix the problem. But who could he trust…

When the hokage's eyes opened with an odd glint in them Kakashi felt a chill go down his spine.

"Well then Kakashi how does a summer long B-ranked mission sound?" Sarutobi asked in a cheerier tone than he had spoken in just a moment ago. Kakashi was pensive and silent for a second before sighing.

"I cant refuse this can I?"

"Oh no you _could_. In which case I _could_ send you to guard our merchants on the northern border of Snow Country for the foreseeable future. You know how bad those ice bandits can be this time of year." Kakashi just gave the hokage a deadpan look before sighing and slipping his mask back on.

"I understand hokage-sama. Well I better get to bed so I'm not late in the morning. See ya." With a two finger salute Kakashi vanished in a puff of smoke leaving a undressed old man sitting at his kitchen table at one in the morning sipping on tea. It took a total of three seconds for Sarutobi to figure it out and curse the jonin silently.

"He knew I was gonna do that didn't he?" Shaking his head Hiruzen Sarutobi turned out the lights and limbered back into bed hoping to get at least an hour or so of sleep before his secretary came and woke him up. Paper work was a bitch.

**Flashback End**

So now Dog was sitting down reading from his little orange book at roughly six in the morning when he felt a tiny usage of chakra a short distance away. Looking up he saw Naruto running out of the woods. The blonde had no dark circles. He didn't look sore. Of course he didn't. Dog had only put him through Hell yesterday and yet here he was feeling perfectly fine.

'_Blasted recovery time.'_ Dog thought sourly as he watched the orange clad kid stroll into the field and begin to look around for him.

"Oi! Silver-sensei! Where are you?" Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs to the empty training grounds causing Dog to sweat drop. Giving up on stealth he hopped out of the tree he was sitting in and landed in front of Naruto.

"Ma ma I'm right here. Now shall we start training for the day?" Naruto nodded his head vigorously. Dog was about to speak when Naruto pulled out a roll of orange bandages and began to wrap it around his head where it covered his eyes. Confused, Dog cocked his head to one side. "What are you doing?""Well, you said you fight with just one eye open." Naruto started as he got the first two layers wrapped around his head. "And you said that the sword lady fights blindfolded to get better at it." He now had a good five layers covering both his eyes and his eye brows but not touching his nose. "And this morning I could kind of see where my landlord was with just hearing." With a final tug on the knot he finished leaving a thick wrap of orange bandages around his head with a knot on the back of his head that left a good inch or two of the orange material flowing behind him. "So I am gonna be the best and I'm gonna do it blindfolded."

With that said Naruto clutched his sword tightly in both hands and prepared to fight. Dog just looked at him for a second before sighing.

"Are you at least using chakra to enhance your hearing and other senses?" Naruto cocked his head to one side and Dog could still see the confusion on his face even with his expressive blue eyes covered. Sighing Naruto lowered his head.

"Let me guess. It must have just _slipped _the teachers minds."

"I suppose so. Well I have two months so we will get around to it eventually. Now, lets pick up from where we left of yesterday. Go ahead and try to make a clone." Naruto nodded firmly and set his sword down on the ground with the hilt of it resting up against his hip. Bringing his hands together in front of him Naruto slowly began to draw chakra out of his reserves and channel it through his body preparing for the clone jutsu. When he felt the necessary chakra running through his system he ran through the hand seals calmly and smoothly as Silver-sensei had told him to.

'_Ram, snake, tiger,'_ Naruto thought as he moved through each hand seal in progression. With a final flare of his chakra he called out his jutsu.

**Clone Jutsu** He heard three puffs of smoke beside him. The blonde grinned at getting the number of clones right only for his smile to falter upon hearing one of the clones dissipate in another puff of smoke not a second later. When he heard his sensei sigh he knew he had failed. "It didn't work did it?"

"Nope." Dog said in a tone so merry and upbeat it annoyed Naruto. "Now we are going to do something a bit different than yesterday. Pick a number, one through five."

"Hmmm. One!" Naruto called out grinning. Surely the lowest number would be the least painful.

"Congratulation!" Dog called as he clapped his hands together in front of him catching Naruto of guard. "You now owe me five hundred pushups without dropping the leaf from your forehead." The blonde was silent for a second before groaning and slumping forward. "If that's too boring I could always read aloud?""NO! No! No! No! No! Hell NO! FUCK NO! And most certainly not!" Naruto shouted while point at the ANBU. "I would prefer to listen to bushy brows rant about youth for a good hour or two before I listened to you reading your porn." With that Naruto set his sword down beside him and got into the proper pushup position. Right before he began however he felt Dog step onto his shoulders adding a good two hundred pounds or so onto his frame. A gloved hand placed a leaf on Naruto's forehead and as soon as it was there Naruto instantly began to focus on keeping it there. And then hell started all over.

*Roughly an hour later*

Naruto was laid out on the ground breathing heavily while Dog stood by passively waiting for Naruto to get up and try the clone technique again. It didn't take too long. What with the boy's inhuman stamina and all. Grudgingly Naruto hauled himself up and staggered for only an instant before righting himself and forming the ram hand seal once more. This time when he called out the jutsu he heard five puffs of smoke instead of the three he had been aiming for. Wincing in anticipation of bad news all he could do was wait.

"Pick a number, one through five." Dog's voice called out in a laid back manner as Naruto heard the clones dispel in a puff of smoke.

"Fine, lets go with two." Almost as soon as the words had left his mouth he felt Dog's feet land on his shoulders again.

"Okay I want you to jog forwards until I tell you other wise." Doing as he was told Naruto did just that and started to run forwards. "Right." Leisurely turning to the right the blindfolded boy almost tripped over a tree root that jutted out of the ground. Deciding that reacting faster would be a good idea Naruto paid closer attention to the man ridding on his shoulders. "Left." Dog finally called out and Naruto instantly reacted to the command and grinned when he didn't trip over any roots this time. "Right." Was heard after a while and again Naruto did as was told. "Right." Altering his course as he was told Naruto was beginning to enjoy this. "Right." A grin was now on Naruto's face as he realized that his luck had won out for once as this was beyond easy. "Right. And that was one lap. You owe me five hundred more without running into anything."

"No sweat Silver-sensei!" Naruto cheered and picked up the pace a bit. He kept waiting for the next command yet it never came. Feeling Dog step off his shoulders Naruto was confused for a split second before he ran head on into a tree. Letting out a yelp of pain Naruto clutched his face and rolled on the ground. "What the heck?"

"You said you wanted to learn how to live blindfolded well then you need to memorize paths after only walking them once. You owe me five hundred laps without running into anything." As Naruto sat up he felt a hand on his head and then the odd tingling sensation he had come to associate with being teleported by his sensei. Groaning he stood up and sure enough Dog got back on his shoulders and instructed him to start jogging again. For one lap he gave directions and then he went silent leaving Naruto to run the course on his own. When he said he finished the lap Naruto stopped.

"Wait a minute! That was different than the first one wasn't it?" Dog smiled and nodded.

"Yep. Each time you mess up I'm going to change it." Again Naruto groaned but attempted top run the trail on his own. And failed miserably. Once more the path changed and once more he ran into a tree. It was on the twelfth try that Naruto managed to make three turns correctly and he was beginning to feel good when he felt Dog step off his shoulders. Coming to a stop as fast as possible he grinned even wider.

"Ha! I got it!" He cheered only to hear silence. "Now am I supposed to turn right or left here." Again only silence. In confusion he thought back to the path and went over what he had heard Silver-sensei say and how long the pauses between instructions were when he came across a thought. "Wait a minute! I could have sworn I was supposed to keep going for another two seconds then turn right. Right?" Still the man refused to answer him and it was beginning to make Naruto nervous. Reaching a hand out and feeling nothing but air Naruto took a step forward, and then another, and then another.

"Very good." Dog said as he stepped back onto Naruto's shoulders. The blonde grinned and took off. Right into a tree. The ANBU sweat dropped as Naruto rolled on the ground and clutched his head in pain. It took nearly two hours for Naruto to get to the point that he could run ten laps consecutively without running into any trees. After he reached that point Dog slapped a leaf on his head and told him to keep it there as he ran. Took roughly another three hours before Naruto could pull that off and still keep track of where he was running. With that success tucked tightly underneath Naruto's belt Dog then told Naruto to run a bit faster after he completed every ten laps.

Needless to say when Naruto finally finished he was exhausted. "You … Are … Evil!" Naruto managed to get out between gasp of air. His lungs felt like they were on fire and what little of his legs he could still feel were sending him sensations like a mix of fire and needles poking his skin. Dog grinned."Maybe. Now lets continue. Go ahead and try the clone technique again." Naruto struggled to get to his feet but finally managed. After taking a second or two to catch his breath Naruto tried in vain to calm his pulse as Silver-sensei had told him the more erratic his pulse the wilder and harder to control his chakra would become. With that step done he charged up his chakra and pushed a tiny bit of it into the jutsu getting a trio of puffs to his left. Grinning at the sounds he waited eagerly for approval from his sensei.

"Well they weren't _as_ ugly." Naruto face vaulted at the statement but picked himself up as Dog continued to speak. "Pick a number, one through five." The genin in training let out a whine and rolled his head.

"Come on, fine five!"

"Okay. Go ahead and try the clone technique again." It was perfectly silent and still in the training ground for a second before it registered in Naruto's mind what his sensei had just said.

"WHAT?" Dog chuckled.

"Yep. Every time you pick five you get to try and the clone technique again." Seeing the wheels in Naruto's mind beginning to turn he continued in a warning tone. "However, if you fail then the next time you cant pick five and whatever you do pick is going to be doubled."

"Ya ya ya. I'm so gonna get it this time!" Though Naruto said it the fear of having to do double the work still nagged him from the back of his mind. Having that hanging over his head failure was inevitable. And sure enough the clones failed and Naruto dropped his head.

"Pick a number, one through five."

"Three." Naruto said dejectedly. Seeing the youths inspiration wavering Dog decided to change things up a bit. Clearing his throat Dog spoke in a robotic tone.

"You now have, ten seconds before major ass whooping commences." Naruto's head jerked up to stare at him.

"Wha?" Was all Naruto got out before dog continued, still speaking in a robotic tone.

"Nine. Eight. Seven." The blonde franticly tried to remember where he had placed his sword last. "Six. Five. Four." Remembering that he should be standing exactly where he started Naruto crouched down and ran his hands over the ground feeling around for his sword. "Three. Two. One."

"Found it!" Naruto shouted as he leapt up and stood in a ready stance with his sword pointing forwards at Dog. And the area was perfectly still. Right up to the point where a foot slammed into the right side of Naruto's face sending the blonde sprawling across the ground. Hearing a page of paper being turned from right above him Naruto rolled over just in time to feel the ground his hands were touching tremble ever so slightly and to receive a spray of dust in the face. Making a mental image of where Dog was Naruto sprung forward and slashed at the air in a horizontal manner with his right hand. He hit nothing of course but as soon as the sword was out from in front of him he put his left hand out and moved into a one handed hand stand. Pushing off he moved into the air right as he felt a leg pass under his hand as it lifted off the ground. Flipping and twisting himself around to face where he had just come from Naruto brought the sword up across his chest just in time to block a slash at his chest. He didn't block the vicious right hook to his chin that sent him reeling.

Kakashi was mildly impressed. He had half expected Naruto to rip the bandages off in annoyance after being hit once or twice. Yet still the youth continued to press on despite the beating he was getting. The fact that Kakashi was holding back at least ninety percent of his strength, speed and reflexes didn't degrade Naruto's skills at all. He was supposed to be a fresh out of the academy genin. Going up against a jonin, not to mention ANBU captain, was paramount to suicide yet this kid managed to always haul himself back up no matter how hard the beating.

'_I got all summer kid. I'm not stopping until you're the best, or you quit.'_

*Nine o'clock that night*

Naruto was staggering. He was just barley managing to keep his eyes open and even with them open his eyes kept going in and out of focus. The poor boy had trained before, but compared to this his earlier training was child's play. After sparring with Dog for a good four hours or so, and getting the tar kicked out of him the entire time, Naruto tried to clone technique again only to hear a phrase he was growing to hate more and more. Deciding that running was the best he had picked two once more. Too bad for him Dog decided that Naruto needed to strengthen his arms so he instructed the poor boy to hold his arms up for five laps, take a lap break, and then hold them up for another five laps. As of this moment there was not a single muscle on his body that didn't ache, hurt, burn, tingle, sting or protest his continuance.

But he had to. Just one more try. Naruto was sure of it this time! As much chakra as he used up no way, NO WAY, did he still have to much for the technique. So slowly he pulled his arms up and ran through the hand seals at a sluggish pace but still managing to pull it off. Shoving the last remains of his chakra reserves into the jutsu he heard only one single puff of smoke beside him. He had wanted to wait to hear if it was a success or a failure. But the ground suddenly seemed like the greatest pillow Naruto had ever felt.

And so he blacked out not knowing that a clone watching him fall to the ground with a sad look on it's face. Kakashi looked at the clone and shook his head. It was a solid and healthy looking clone but it still wouldn't pass the genin exam. The edges of the clone were rough and blurred slightly like a faulty TV screen filled with static. Another thing was the clone kept fazing in and out of focus. Kakashi was sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that Naruto had used less than the necessary amount for the technique but for some reason the clone still didn't look right.

Sighing the masked jonin ran through hand seals catching the attention of the clone.

**Chakra Absorption Jutsu **Kakashi called out even as a pale white aura enshrouded his hands and wrist. Setting his palms down on either of the clone's shoulders Kakashi watched as the chakra holding the illusion together was sucked into his hands. His eyes widened as he looked down at his hands and then to the boy laying unconscious on the ground.

'_His chakra …its not that he puts to much into the jutsu. Its more like, his chakra is to … I don't know.'_ Kakashi thought trying to think of exactly how to describe the feeling of power he had gotten from such a miniscule portion of chakra. _'Dense.'_ He finally settled on that word and nodded as it fit. _'His chakra its, wild and dense. It was less chakra than I would need for the jutsu yet he overloaded it because of its potency. I'm gonna have to wake the hokage again aren't I?'_

Groaning and leaning down Kakashi pulled the blonde into his arms before disappearing in a shushin. His destination? The hospital. Why? Because Naruto was suffering from chakra exhaustion for the first time in his life.

8888

Naruto woke up with a jerk only to see orange. For a moment he was confused then it dawned on him that he still had his orange blindfold in place. Sighing that something wasn't seriously wrong with his vision Naruto relaxed and laid back down to find that he was laying in a comfy bed with a fluffy pillow behind his head.

"Hmmm. I would have thought Silver-sensei would leave me out on the training ground." Naruto mused to himself. Which would explain when he got a response the youth nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Should I be offended by that or not?" Naruto heard the ever laid back voice of his sensei call from somewhere to his right. Clutching his chest and sucking in air he glared at the spot he assumed his sensei was located at. "I'm actually a bit more to the left but good try." Dog said a half mocking half complimentary tone. Naruto adjusted his head according and glared at that spot for a second before giving up and flopping back against he bed once again."So where am I? There is no way this is my house cause my bed is like a hundred times lumpier than this."

"Your in the hospital for chakra exhaustion. Seems my training regiment was a bit to much." Eyebrow twitching furiously Naruto resisted the urge to find some random inanimate object and hurl it at his sensei.

"A _bit_?" Naruto asked with sarcasm leaking heavily from his voice.

"Hey you wanted to get stronger didn't you?" Dog said a bit defensively and Naruto could tell without looking that the masked man was holding up his hands.

"So how long am I gonna be in here?"

"Well a normal person would be in here for a good two, maybe three days before they could leave and even then they would be on crutches."

"WHAT?" Naruto roared. He needed to train! Not sit in some dingy hospital waiting for his body to heal.

"Settle down. I said a normal person, you are so far beyond normal its not even funny. With your ungodly recovery time the nurses, who are quiet cute I might add, told me you could leave as soon as you woke up." Naruto shook his head at his sensei's perverseness but ignored it. If the man helped him get stronger than he could deal with a few quirks here and there. "So, I have a question for you."

"Oh and what's that?" Naruto asked truly curious as his sensei had never asked him anything.

"Which number of one through five do you want to pick." The room was deathly silent for a total of three seconds before Naruto reached over and snatched the nearest thing he could grab, which happened to be a metal tray, and hurled it at his sensei.

"Fuck you! I choose food! You didn't even give me time you eat you good for nothing bastard! So you can taking that little orange book of porn and shove it up your ass till it pokes out your throat!"

"Naruto-kun!" A familiar feminine voice scolded causing Naruto to freeze and turn around. "What have I told you about your language?" Even with his eyes covered Naruto could picture how Ayame was standing. She would have her hip cocked to the right with her right hand resting on it and a scowl would be on her face. She would cock her head to the left just the tiniest faction of an inch and her black eyes would be narrowed at him, had he been in the restaurant she would be pointing a butchers knife at him.

"B-but Ayame-neechan! That bastard sensei of mine was being a jerk!"

"Hmmm? What sensei are you talking about? It was just you shouting at nothing when I walked in." Naruto's jaw hung open for a second before he turned away from his adoptive sister.

"I'll kill him slowly and painfully. Fist I'm gonna burn that book in front of him then I'm gonna pull that mask off and give him a _reason_ to cover his face." Naruto mumbled underneath his breath.

"What was that?" Ayame asked with an edge to her tone that Naruto knew all to well. Spinning around quickly with a huge grin plastered on his face he shook his head."Nothing! Say how did you know I was here Ayame-neechan?" That was when a smell Naruto would know by heart long after he died. "Ramen! You brought me ramen didn't you? You did! Alright!" The brown haired girl shook her head and giggled as she saw Naruto managed to perform a little victory jig while sitting in a hospital bed. Taking the box of to go ramen out from behind her she placed it on Naruto's lap and watched with a small smile on her face as he tore into it with gusto as he did every meal. Even blindfolded he still managed to eat the broth faster than anyone she had ever seen.

"Some man in a mask with spiky silver hair told us you were at the hospital and asked if we would bring you some ramen." She let out another giggle as she saw the boy freeze with a mouthful of ramen half way to his mouth.

"Silver-sensei got me ramen? Okay maybe I wont burn his books.""He also said you would pay for it." Naruto's good mood vanished and he dropped his head down before shaking it and resuming eating. It didn't take the bottomless pit long to devour the food and clean it down to the last drop. With a resounding burp of satisfaction Naruto sighed and nodded to himself.

"Okay now I need to go find and beat the living shi…" He paused when he heard Ayame growl at him. "Crap out of my sensei. Say Ayame-neechan is there a covered sword somewhere around here?"

"Um, give me a minute." Naruto listened as he heard her move about the room looking for his sword. He knew when she found it as he heard her suck in a breath. "Here it is. Why do you want it?"

"Never mind that say where is the window and is the sun shining in?" Ayame cocked her head to the side in confusion but answered none the less.

"Um the window is to your left and ya the suns shining in. Why?"

'_So that's how that lazy sensei got away so fast. Bastard.'_ Naruto thought to himself.

"Um I was wondering if you wouldn't mind opening it for me I could use some fresh air." Ayame grinned and nodded. Stepping over to the window she unlatched it before sliding the large glass frame to the left allowing the cool morning breeze to flow in. When she looked back at the bed she saw that Naruto was gone without so much as a trace.

"I hate when ninja do that. He is so getting it when he comes to the stand next and he _will_ come. He wouldn't be Naruto if he didn't."

Naruto had waited until he heard the latch being lifted and as soon as he heard that he rolled out of the bed into the shadows on the left side of his bed only to fall out onto the grass on the outside of the hospital. Looking back up at the building he felt only a tiny bit of remorse for bailing on her but that was quickly squashed. Resting his sword over his shoulder once more he walked back into the shadows he had just come out of. Where he stepped out shocked the boy. He was already on the outskirts of the city and that had only been one jump!

"What in the…" Looking back over the village from the shadow of the water tank he was standing in Naruto looked down at himself in confusion. "It was _never_ that easy to do that. Did Silver-sensei's training do that?" Grinning like a fool he decided to test just how far he could move now. To his utter astonishment he made it to the outside of the village walls with only one more jump. Two! Two jumps had been all it took for him to cross almost half the village. A stupid grin spread across his face even as he dashed across the thin line of light and as soon as he stepped foot into the shade offered by the trees of the forest Naruto vanished once again.

What he didn't notice was that a ANBU with a dog mask was sitting on the wall with both eyes open. The man had seen everything Naruto had just done and now the man was more confused than he had been to start with. He knew Naruto was using some odd technique but now he was all out baffled. Looking at the jutsu through his hidden eye did nothing for the ANBU other than to further his confusion. The red eye had seen nothing. Nothing at all. It had seen Naruto after he had stepped out of the shadows and right before but as soon as Naruto vanished from view of normal eyes he vanished form Dog's hidden eye as well. And that was something that bothered the ANBU to no end.

Deciding to save that question for a later date Dog stood up and left in a shushin leaving only a few floating leaves behind to mark his presence. He didn't need to question Naruto on the jutsu today. He would have enough to handle as it was.

8888

Naruto stepped out of the forest and came to a halt. Listening as hard as he could he tried to hear his sensei breathing, or turning a page in his book, or something. But all he heard was the sounds of nature all around him. Right until he felt a pulse of chakra to his right and sure enough a second or two later he heard and felt Silver-sensei walking across the grass.

"I liked the running thing the best so can we start off with two?" Naruto asked as he stared to move his arms and legs about to get the blood flowing. When his sensei didn't respond the boy frowned. "Silver-sensei?"

"Um. Naruto, I have some bad news and I have some _really_ bad news. Which do you want to hear first?" Dog sounded nervous and Naruto had never heard his sensei sound like that which unnerved him. Groaning Naruto flopped down on the ground, his sword landing next to him, and sat cross legged with his arms crossed over his chest and a defiant pout on his face.

"Just tell me the bad news. I don't want to hear the really bad news."

"Uh okay." Dog cleared his throat before speaking in a cheery tone. "You will never be able to pull of the academy clone jutsu!" Dog said in an upbeat tone waiting for Naruto's explosive response. It sure came. Naruto's chakra exploded outwards as the boy leapt up and snatched his sword up with him as he stood."Why not!" He demanded with a voice of steel. Dog didn't back down in the least.

"That is the_ really really _bad news." Naruto's face scrunched up in a look of confusion and anger so Dog went on. "It's the reason why you always get sold rotten milk." Seeing the anger and confusion drain right out of Naruto's face Dog nearly flinched at the look of pure desperation on Naruto's blindfolded face. "It's the reason why the teachers screwed with your training. It's the reason why your sword is made of wood. It's the reason why you cant buy any ninja tools and it's the reason why the older generation looks at you with apathy or hate." Naruto's complexion was bleach white and the boy was rigid. With a quick jerky motion he snatched the blindfold off his face and looked at the man before him with tears forming in his eyes.

"Why? Why? Why is it? Please. Tell me!" Dog swallowed hardly but the lump in his throat refused to leave. Taking a deep breath he answered.

"The Kyuubi no Kitsune is a beast made of limitless chakra, hate, bloodlust and rage. Those things cant be killed only locked away, or sealed away to be more precise." In the back of Naruto's mind little things he had heard over his lifespan were beginning to come back and nag him. A feeling of dread turned Naruto's blood as cold as ice and a lump of lead fell into his stomach. "The Fourth Hokage couldn't kill the beast so he did the next best thing and sealed it away. But a beast of that size couldn't just be sealed into any random object, it had to be sealed into a new born baby. That baby was you Naruto. You have the Kyuubi no Kitsune, strongest of the biju, the beast that nearly annihilated this village and took the lives of countless, sealed into your stomach."


	3. Chapter 3

**In a review i was asked to translate the jutsu into japanese. Answer is, unless you personally are willing to translate all the jutsu i plan on creating no. I have no knowledge of the language and i have neither the time nor the patience to figure out how to translate the jutsu. If you honestly want to translate them all for me then message me.**

**MKterra: Haha you defend my fic for me? Damn you rule! Give yourself a cookie for me would ya**

**Gogt12: The sword itself doesnt channel chakra. I saw and read where Asuma taught Naruto to channel chakra through regular kunai to make them sharper and again thanks to a mountain dew induced high i thought why not do it with a wooden sword. Its not the sword that cuts its Naruto's chakra which is wind natured. Hope that helps.**

**Jrwest: No i'm not gonna give him a rasenganblade or other things like that. (interesting ideas thought might use them in later fic) But my Naruto will most certainly not be canon like at all.**

**Anyways enjoy the latest chapter and frankly the speed i cranked this out shocked me. Dont expect it very often.**

**Impure Perfection**

* * *

><p><strong>Changing Winds<strong>

Even as Naruto's blue eyes widened in disbelief things he had heard all throughout his life gradually began to make sense. _'Die demon scum!' _An angry village shouted on Naruto's tenth birthday. _'Get out of my store you fox brat!'_ A sneering old lady said to him when he had tried to purchase some clothing. _'Finish what the fourth started!'_ A chunin yelled as he was about to kill Naruto only for an ANBU to stop the fanatic. All the graffiti covering his walls suddenly became a lot more personal.

"Your lying!" Naruto shouted with fury written across his face. "That's a lie! It has to be! They said the fourth killed the fox! Your just lying like everyone else!" Dog sighed and lowered his head a bit.

"Lift up your shirt and channel chakra while looking at your stomach." Dog said in a calm manner trying to prevent the kid from getting any more upset. "If I'm lying then nothing will appear. If I'm telling the truth then the seal will show up." Naruto instantly complied and yanked his orange blazer up and off his head and tossed it to the ground where it was followed shortly by his black muscle shirt. Putting his hands in the ram hand seal Naruto channeled a good portion of chakra through his system until he felt the high associated with using large amounts of chakra. Snapping his eyes open he quickly glanced down at his own stomach. Sure enough there was a seal array in the middle of his stomach. The seal looked like a large black spiral whose center was Naruto's naval. Around the spiral was a complex array of marking and scribbles that made no sense at all to the young boy's mind.

"W-what is that?" Naruto asked timidly.

"That is the Death God seal. It cost the fourth hokage his soul to lock the nine tailed beast inside you." Fierce blue eyes snapped up from examining the seal to glare at Dog.

"WHY ME?" Naruto shouted even as hot tears of anguish began to spill from his eyes. "Why me? What did I ever do to deserve this? Why did the fourth pick me? There had to be someone else born that day? Why couldn't he have picked them? Why?" Naruto collapsed onto the ground with his head resting in his hands. "Why? Why? Why?" It was the one question he kept asking over and over again. And it was the one question Dog had _not_ been allowed to answer. He knew the answer but the hokage had forbidden him from telling Naruto. For a long time the only sounds heard in the training ground were that of Naruto trying and failing to stop crying and asking 'Why' over and over again.

"You know," Dog started in a thoughtful manner causing Naruto to slowly lift his head and look at the man before him. But Dog wasn't looking at him. He was starring up at the sky. "The fourth was my sensei and he had this, I don't know, skill, talent I guess you could call it that. But whatever it was he had it and it was amazing. He could almost always look at someone and know whether to trust them or not. I never had that skill, I always had to sit back and watch the person before I could come to trust him. But not Minato-sensei. He could be in the middle of a battle, stumble across a red headed girl with no headband or form of identification, and instinctively know without a doubt that he could trust her enough to bring her back to the village. So for some reason or another he saw something in you that gave him enough courage to trust the fate of the village to you."

"Me?" Naruto asked meekly and at the same time pointed at himself. "What do you mean?"

"The seal on your stomach cannot be broken or destroyed by anyone but you. The strength of the seal is tied directly to you will. If you wanted you could give up, surrender yourself completely to the fox and it would take over your mind as it broke out of the seal. You would die as would the countless others that it would kill if it were ever free to roam the earth once more. The only thing stopping it from breaking out is you. Whether those foolish villagers see it or not everyday you take their hate and endure it you protect them from and the world from the Kyuubi."

Having said all he intended to say Dog went silent and watched as all the information slowly started to sink into Naruto's mind. At first the only readable emotions on Naruto's face were confusion and conflict. Gradually however his expression and posture began to change little by little. He sat up straighter and squared his shoulders as an unstoppable fire began to burn in his bright blue eyes. Standing up with his sword in his right hand and orange bandages in his left he looked determinedly at dog.

"Then train me." Naruto mumbled out just above a whisper.

"Hmmm?"

"Train me to be the best. I am gonna get so strong people are gonna have two options. Either love _me_ because I protect them, or fear _me_ like the shinigami. I want to be so strong and respected people think of me first and a few hours later remember that I happen to have the Kyuubi sealed within in me."

Beneath his mask Dog grinned before nodding.

'_Minato-sensei, your son would make you proud.'_

8888

It had taken nearly a month for Sarutobi to find out which teachers were intentionally sabotaging Naruto's education. What he found was appalling. It wasn't just the individual teachers acting out of spite as he had originally thought. No, they were collaborating together with one another so that no one teacher left out more than the others but at the same time each teacher left out different yet viable information that most ninja assumed was common knowledge.

The more he found out the angrier and angrier Sarutobi became until he could no longer focus on anything aside from resolving the issue at hand. A part of him he had not felt stirring in so long he had nearly forgotten it was coming back to life. It was the part of him that slaughtered dozens of enemy ninja on the battlefield. It was the part of him that clawed its way through the Second Great Ninja War and it was the part that had decimated all its opponents in the Third Great Ninja War. It was the beast within him and it was not to pleased to be woken from its slumber.

With a snap of his fingers ten ANBU fazed into existence before him.

"Gather me the teachers listed on this scroll." Hiruzen said in a tone full of authority as he extended a scroll to the leader of the squad. Cat took the scroll and curtly nodded before making an unnoticeable sign to her squad members. As a unit all ten ANBU vanished in a single puff of smoke. Within the hour fifteen chunin ranked teachers were gathered together in front of the hokage. Not a one of them seemed nervous or scared of the man, in fact one or two were giddy."Hokage-sama." A chunin with light brown hair and a swords strapped onto his waist on either side said as he stepped forward. "I would like to bring a matter of importance to your attention." Hiruzen raised an eyebrow but said nothing, merely gestured for the man to continue. "While I was touring the training grounds the other day checking up on my former students I came across something illegal. One of your ANBU was training the de… the drop out of the academy."

"And?" Sarutobi asked simply with a mocking tone his in voice. The chunin paused for just a second and the tone of his leaders voice but pressed on none the less.

"It is distinctly written in the school rules that students are not to be trained by individuals outside of those assigned to teach by the hokage or by the council. Since this particular _student_ has broken that rule I would like to suggest that he not be allowed back into the academy."

"Hmmm. Since it was my orders for Dog to train Uzumaki I am going to have to politely tell you to take your suggestion and shove it up your ass." The face the chunin made was priceless. Sarutobi was certain if he had suddenly pulled a fish out and slapped the man he wouldn't have been as shocked as he was right now. "I wouldn't have needed to order him to train the boy if you fools had done your job and trained him instead of letting your prejudice ruin his skills." As he had been speaking he had slowly began to release the hold he always maintained over his chakra allowing it to flow freely from his aged body. He may be old but old chakra is still strong chakra. The chunin were all choking on air and trying to keep their minds from shutting down. Sure they were ninja and had felt killer intent before but against the killer intent of a kage they were nothing more than insignificant little moths facing a raging inferno.

Standing up not a single one of his joints popped as he stood up perfectly straight for the first time in over a decade. Keeping the killer intent and chakra contained within the room with the precision and control only a master could posses Hiruzen was pleased to see the panicked looks on all their faces. "It has come to my attention that the reason our jinchurriki is a joke compared to the jinchurriki of other nations is because of you bigoted imbeciles. Apparently it must have not crossed any of your minds that the kid you were screwing with has the potential to become a ninja with more power than even the fourth hokage. Yet instead of fostering that potential you squander it!" The hokage openly glared at the crowd before him and let a cruel smirk spread across his face at the sight of the petrified chunin.

Now humans are animals at their core which means that to an extent they still have instincts. And with a pissed off hokage leveling a good portion of his killer intent at you your instincts kick into high gear to try and save your miserable ass. Most of the people in the room went with the wiser and much safer response of cowering and praying to every deity imaginable that the man before you didn't suddenly decide to kill you. A select few however decided to fight against the suffocating pressure of Sarutobi's killer intent. Flaring their chakra as high as they could to give them enough room to breath and once more grant them the ability to coherently think the chunin who had spoken before spoke up once more.

"Why would we want him to be that strong? If he is that strong he could attack us again like he did fourteen years ago!" The chunin shouted at Sarutobi. The old man frowned at this man's stupidity.

"You still seem to have misconceptions about what Naruto is. He is not the fox, he is the fox's jailor and the only thing preventing the Kyuubi from escaping the seal and attacking us again. And _if_ the fox were to escape we don't have the fourth around to save us again. We would be dead in the water. Nothing we have or could obtain would be able to stop that beast from leveling the village." Instead of backing down the chunin spread his arms out to the side with the palms facing Sarutobi.

"That's why we shouldn't train it you senile old man! Keep it weak and pathetic and then we kill it! Finish what the fourth started! Instead your trying to make it strong and give it power to attack us again and kill all our families again! The fourth probably _wanted_ us to kill the demon as soon as possible but you protect it for some ungodly reason." Stepping back, his rant finished the chunin crossed his arms over his chest. "Maybe its time we replace you."

All ANBU hidden throughout the room glanced at one another nervously. Each member of the elite group pitied the poor fools. Sarutobi glared at the man before him with such anger and contempt his gaze alone caused the man to lose his breath. And then the Professor of Konoha showed why he should be feared. His chakra was no longer merely flowing out of his body. Now it was being pushed violently out of his elderly frame and into the confines of the room crushing all present with its potency. The senses of everyone in the room suddenly went haywire. To their senses they were standing in the middle of a hurricane of epic proportions, the winds were so ferocious it tore at their flesh and gnawed at their very souls until the weak in the very back of the group actually blacked out. Those who remained conscious saw the thousands of ways the man before them could kill them with little to no effort whatsoever. In reality nothing had moved. The room was perfectly still and utterly silent.

"You are ninja!" Sarutobi finally said in a tone of unbending steel after immersing the weaklings before him in the depths of his anger. "You are meant to die fighting for your village or have you forgotten that? Were I to send all of you present in this room on S-ranked missions guaranteed to kill you and they killed you no one would say a word about it. The family members you are so bent out of shape about died with honor fighting against a foe they had no hopes of defeating. Yet you spend you days disgracing both their memories and this village by dwelling on their deaths and allowing your grief to cloud your judgment. Because you obviously are not able to do as you are told I hereby strip you of all titles and ranks you may have achieved during your service to Konoha. In order to maintain the safety and secrets of this village that you may have obtained all memories dealing with shinobi affairs of this village shall be wiped from your memories. You shall become civilians and in order to insure you do not use the skills you trained so hard to obtain they shall be sealed away from you for the remainder of your lives."

It was just beginning to sink into their minds what was happening to them when the first of the ANBU began to knock them out. When all fifteen of the chunin were unconscious and tied up Cat faced the hokage.

"What do you want done with them?" He grinned at her.

"Exactly what I said. Tell Inoichi to wipe all their memories clean leaving them with only the memories a civilian might have. Tell Ibiki to seal away any and all ninja skills they possess and to make sure that the seals are never coming off." Cat actually paused for a second in shock. Her pacifist leader had just carried out a sentence worse than death and was grinning about it like it was pleasurable. Swallowing she quickly nodded before her and her team all left in shushins. One thing was ingrained in their minds. Do. NOT. Fuck. With. The. Hokage.

With the ANBU dismissed and the room quiet and peaceful once more Hiruzen turned back to his desk and saw the paperwork he had to do. He felt the beast disgust and couldn't help agree with it. But, it wasn't the paperwork the beast was disgusted with, it was disgusted with him for being a slave to it. Sure it had to be done but it did not need to consume his entire day. A piece of paper buried under several stacks of judicial bull shit caught his attention. Pulling it out he saw it was a notice for a council meeting. It started ten minutes ago and no one had come to get him for the meeting. Growling he turned and was about to stroll out the door and down the hall when an interesting thought struck him.

'_Why walk?'_ With a smirk he vanished in a shushin.

8888

"Where is Sarutobi?" The haggard old voice of Danzo asked the room of council members and clan heads. The two advisors sitting on either side of an empty chair simply shrugged."Last we heard he was in some meeting with several chunin and we have no idea how long it may take so we shall start the meeting without him." Homura, Sarutobi's old teammate and current advisor, said dismissively. Danzo nodded and was about to push the matter out of his mind when he felt the faintest of chakra signatures suddenly appear in the room between the two advisors. His visible eye remained calm and unsurprised even when Sarutobi appeared in a shushin. The hokage didn't appear in the usual smoke associated with the shushin and instead used his masterful chakra control to simply faze into existence. All in the room, save Danzo, were startled by the sudden appearance of the old man. They were even more shocked by the subtle killer intent leaking out from him causing all ninja in attendance to come to full attention, even the eternally half sleeping Shikaku. "Ah there you are Sarutobi, we were just about to go get you." Hiruzen looked at his fellow teammate with a look of disdain on his face. The look did not go unnoticed by Danzo's keen eye.

"I'm sure you were Homura."

"May we ask what your meeting with the chunin was about?" Koharu asked from the other side of Sarutobi. The hokage grinned and shrugged as he began to sit down.

"Nothing much. I simply fired fifteen of the academy instructors." Eyes all around the room widened in shock. One obsidian black eye didn't widen nor narrow, it simply examined Sarutobi with a critical gaze. "Had those fifteen chunin stripped of ninja rank, title and privileges. They are going to have all shinobi memories wiped clean as well as have their shinobi skills sealed away permanently. So nothing much really." Hiruzen stated nonchalantly garnering the attention of all present in the room.

"Why did you do that?" Shouted the unofficial leader of the red light district. "Even if you had good reasons you should have come and cleared it with us first." The subtle killer intent that had been picked up on by the shinobi now increased to levels that even the civilians felt sending chills of ice down their spines.

"No actually I shouldn't have. I am hokage. Business dealing with the shinobi sector of this village should and from now on _will_ be handled by me and not this council. My sensei created this council to help integrate the civilian and ninja parts of this village but I have decided that it is high time that is over. Civilians should not have any say in what goes on with my ninja." The civilian councilors were purple in the face and ready to start arguing when Sarutobi continued and leaked even more killer intent to silence them before they could interrupt. "Another thing. If I hear that any of you in this room have instructed my shinobi to do your bidding without clearing it by me I will have you executed for treason."

"Hiruzen!" Konharu scolded. "What has gotten into you?" Snarling Sarutobi turned his head to glare at the purple haired woman beside him.

"Oh, I forgot about you two. As of now I strip you of your privileges as my advisors and remove both of you from that position." Both stared it shock at their teammate who had turned away from them and was scanning the room. "Hmmm, now who to replace you two?" He locked eyes with all ninja present in the room and each and ever person who dared to meet his gaze immediately looked away with fear coursing through their veins. Yesterday had you met this man's eyes would have seen never ending warmth and forgiveness in his eyes. Today? The warmth was replaced with a fire that would burn you were you to face it for to long a time. The forgiveness was replaced with a critical judgment that pierced you down to your core. Only one man didn't shy away from his gaze. "Danzo." Sarutobi finally said causing not only the former advisors but the clan heads to snap their heads towards him in shock as well. "What say you to a spar?"

At that point in time Danzo's mind was going a thousand miles a minute in confusion. Within a span of ten minutes Sarutobi had just shattered any and all preconceived notions about himself. The old monkey had fired his two teammates without pause or hesitation and seemed thrilled about it. As if that wasn't shocking even he had then asked Danzo for a spar! NEVER had Sarutobi been the one to ask for a spar, it was always the other way around with Danzo asking for a spar. And it had been two decades, at the least, since their last spar. With all ideas and plans shattered Danzo did exactly what Sarutobi wanted.

He nodded.

"Sure. Where would you like to spar?" Danzo asked politely.

"How does the hokage's private training grounds sound, say around five?" When the war hawk gave another courteous nod Sarutobi grinned and faced the rest of the council. He opened his mouth and was about to speak when he frowned and quickly glanced between the two dumbstruck people sitting on either side of him. "Eh-hem. I told you two, you are no longer my advisors so I suggest you move away before I have ANBU escort you away."

In a daze the two got up and slowly made their way out of the room the huge double doors slamming shut behind them. Facing the gawking mass of people before him Sarutobi grinned.

"Right. Now what are we here to discuss?"

8888

Hiruzen Sarutobi was meditating in front of a chain link fence with a gate not but a few yards away from him. Paperwork? Its lovely how a little killer intent and a harsh glare can convince a few secretaries to stop flirting with gullible chunin and actually do their work. After instructing them to only leave him the absolute most important stuff that needed his direct approval he was amazed at how little paperwork he truly _needed_ to do. The sun was just beginning to set when he heard and sensed his long time rival and friend approach at a leisurely pace. Without so much as opening his eyes he spoke.

"So glad you could make it. Now would you care to dismiss the two mice you have following you?" Danzo didn't pause at his ROOT being discovered and instead just nodded his head a fraction of an inch. Without having to look he knew that his two bodyguards had left the premises. Continuing forwards at his usual pace he examined the man before him. It was Sarutobi Hiruzen for sure. But the air around him had changed drastically from the crippled old man who had been running this village for such a length amount of time. When he finally reached the meditating man he watched carefully as his rival stood up without a single joint popping or a single grimace of pain flashing across his face.

Tearing his eyes off Sarutobi for the first time Danzo examined the fence before him. It was a measly looking fence with no remarkable features or glaring signs of making entrance challenging. But Danzo knew better. The number of seals and safe guards crafted into each link in the chain fence were innumerous. He had tried many a times to examine what went on behind this fence but no matter what he had tried or who he had gotten to look into it the results were always the same as what you saw with the normal eye. A wall of white. You saw a chain fence and beyond it was nothing but an impenetrable wall of white light that seemed to stretch on endlessly upwards. Odd thing about it was that you could only see the wall of white when you were standing near the fence.

"Training ground 666. Created by the fourth hokage for training with his more destructive jutsu. Only the current hokage can enter and only the current hokage can allow any others to enter." Danzo quoted as he watched Sarutobi run through a series of hand seals at a blinding pace before slamming both palms against the gate. Instead of swinging open the gate began to glow a faint blue for a moment before shimmering out of existence leaving a doorway through the wall of never ending white light. Through the door Danzo saw the grass growing on the ground was a different shade than that of the grass on the outside of the barrier.

Sarutobi grinned upon seeing his rival's confusion at the difference between terrain inside and outside the training ground.

"All the chakra expended in this training ground combined with the seals keeping it from escaping or dissipating over time has changed the plant life around here." He explained as he walked into the training ground knowing that Danzo was following behind him. Once he and his rival were through he turned around and ran through the same series of hand seals he had done outside the barrier before slamming his palms against the doorway. In a flash of blue light the chain link gate popped back into sight. With that finished Sarutobi began to walk further into the training ground, Danzo following shortly behind him.

It wasn't a standard training ground by any means. Where other training grounds had specific regional climates they tried to emulate this one seemed to mimic all climates and terrains at the same time. As far as size went this was easily the largest training ground of them all including the Forest of Death. Yet this one would be simplistic to navigate even by a rookie genin. The front of the training ground was a huge sea of ankle high grass of the oddest variety. It was a pale white.

Beyond the plain of white grass was a path of regular green grass that stretched all the way to the back of the training ground. On either side of the strip of grass different zones of different sizes and varieties filled the remainder of the training ground. One had a massive waterfall that would easily tower over the hokage building in the village, in front of the water fall was a crystal clear lake roughly the size of an ordinary training field. Directly across the path of grass from that zone was a stark contrast. In the middle of the zone was a volcano nearly as tall as the hokage monument and about as wide as the hokage building. It seemed to be constantly erupting and spewing lava from its peak at a steady pace. From the peak lava ran down the sides of the rock and down into a vast stretch of ground consisting of nothing more than lava and the occasional island of solid rock. Beyond those two zones the terrains and climates created were even more bewildering. A mountain top in a perpetual blizzard, sand dunes with never ceasing winds, a swamp filled with all sorts of slithering creatures, and a chasm with silvery rock spikes jutting up from the bottom of the chasm were only some of the dozen or so zones.

"How?" Danzo asked trying his hardest to keep the awe out of his voice. Sarutobi grinned proudly.

"He was a master of seals with a student who knew jutsu from every village he ever fought against. Combine those two and creating something like this is just the beginning of what those two could achieve. Now, I believe this plain would be good enough for a spar between the two of us for today don't you think?"

"It will suffice, you and I have aged and I am no where near what I used to be thanks to my injuries." Sarutobi grinned and shook his head.

"Danzo, I know you were wounded. But I also know how you think and how you act. I may not know what exactly you did to yourself but I know you did something because there is no way you would allow yourself to become weak by any standards and I know you have no care for looking better by hiding old wounds. If you wear those bandages it is not because of an injury but because you wish to keep something hidden and frankly my friend its time to drop the secrets."

"I don't know what your talking about Sarutobi…" Before Danzo could finish he was forced to jerk his wooden staff upwards and rotate his wrist so that the end of his wooden cane caught the kunai that would have embedded itself in his head.

"I have every intention of fighting you to my fullest, no holding back or keeping any tricks an reserve. I wont kill you. If you fight me with everything you have. If not, then I guess you really were crippled." Without waiting for a response Sarutobi began to run through hand seals at a pace only a hokage could.

**Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet** Sarutobi intoned as he unleashed a huge stream of blazing hot flames at Danzo. Danzo's eyes widened.

'_Old coot is seriously gonna go all out straight from the get go?'_ Dashing to his left to avoid the attack Danzo began to run through hand seals of his own.

**Wind Style: Vacuum Sphere** With a puff of air Danzo launched a ball of compressed at Sarutobi who had just stopped his fire jutsu. Leaning back and twisting to the right in order to avoid the wind attack Sarutobi shot of a single kunai at Danzo with his right hand while his left hand was running through hand seals.

**Shadow Shuriken Jutsu **The one kunai quickly turned into over a dozen kunai, all hurtling towards Danzo who was still running. Waiting until the last second Danzo exhaled a stream of wind chakra downwards and jumped upwards at the same time so that he easily cleared the impending wall of thrown weaponry. While in air he quickly ran through hand seals again calling out the same jutsu as before. The difference between last time and this time was that instead of the bullet shaped attack it was a long speeding blade of wind. Sarutobi saw the incoming attack and ran towards the air borne Danzo ducking as he ran so as to avoid being cleaved in half by the wind blade. When the wind blade impacted against the ground it created a trench with no apparent bottom easily a good twenty yards or so long. But neither ninja paid attention to that as Danzo was watching Sarutobi who as running through hand seals once more.

**Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet** As Sarutobi ran a dragon's head of mud formed along side him and keeping pace with him. In a mighty roar the beast fired several mud bullets, each easily the size of a small child, before falling back into the earth. Sarutobi saw the mud bullets impact with Danzo and frowned. Sure enough it wasn't a bloody corpse but rather a chunk of wood splinters that fell to the ground. Stopping his advance he looked around the area in search of his opponent.

**Wind Style: Vacuum Great Sphere **Was the only warning Sarutobi had before ball the size of a building and made entirely out of shredding winds was launched at him. Without performing hand seals at all Sarutobi slammed his palms on the ground. A wall of earth jutted up just in time to rescue the hokage from being decimated by the vicious wind attack. When the attack collided with his earth wall it nearly destroyed it but luckily Sarutobi's chakra and precision kept it standing. Smiling he looked out over the plain to see his rival standing there watching him intently with the black cloak he had kept hiding the right side of his body now shrugged off and hanging limply around his waist."Finally deciding to get serious are we?" Sarutobi asked playfully from atop his earthen wall.

"I will not die for some petty spar." Danzo answered simply though even from the distance Hiruzen saw the small smile on his rivals face.

"Whatever you say. By the way you never disbanded ROOT did you." Though it was a question Hiruzen had stated it as a fact.

"I did as you ordered Hokage-sama." Danzo replied with a bitterness to his voice and the smile that had been on his face now replaced with a scowl. Grinning Sarutobi shrugged.

"Ah that's too bad." The hokage said and was satisfied to see the brief flash of confusion and surprise that managed to make itself known on Danzo's face. "I may have hated your training methods but damn if they weren't useful. I think I might have a situation in Kiri that would be perfect for your cloak and dagger group. That's _if_ they were still around." Before Danzo could respond Sarutobi back flipped off the earthen wall out of sight from Danzo.

'_Was he serious? What could he possibly want with ROOT in Kiri?'_ Before his thoughts could go any further he heard another jutsu being called out and cursed his opponents sudden change of pace.

**Earth Style: Boulder Dash **Sarutobi called out as he stood behind the earth wall with his legs spread apart and both fist balled up tightly by his hips. In a single fluid and powerful move he thrust his right fist forward only to have it collide with the earth wall he had created earlier. The entire right half of the wall as high as Hiruzen's head shot out at Danzo. Without pausing for even a second Hiruzen did the same with his left hand and sure enough knocked out the entire left half of the wall up to his head and sent it hurdling at Danzo. Continuing that process as fast as the wall fell Sarutobi soon had at least fifty boulders careening across the field towards Danzo.

Reaching into pockets within his robe Danzo pulled out a single shuriken with his right hand holding it by one of its tips. As he tossed the shuriken up he breathed out a vacuum of air and used his mastery of his element to attach it to the shuriken. As that shuriken moved up to his head in height he had already pulled out another one with his left hand. After doing the same thing with the left and then repeating it once more with both hands Danzo now had four shuriken hovering in front of him, each with wind blades increasing their cutting range to nearly half his size. All this had been done before the first of Sarutobi's earth boulders had reached him

**Wind Style: Stream **Danzo called right as his shuriken began to fall and the boulders reached him. With pressure from his gale pressing on one side of the shuriken and the boulders rapidly pounding against the other side of the shuriken they stayed in place preventing even a pebble to so much as touch Danzo. Once the last of the boulders had been reduced to smithereens by his improvised shield Danzo snatched the shuriken out of the air and spun once before launching them through the smoke towards Sarutobi. Hearing a clang that did not belong to any ordinary material Danzo actually groaned.

Sure enough when the smoke cleared it revealed Sarutobi grinning at him with his signature diamond hard staff in hand.

"You summoned Enma?"

"I told you I wasn't holding back. Do you still insist on keeping your arm under wraps?" Danzo didn't appreciate the joke and instead glared at his rival.

"I am wounded and cannot remove them." He replied robotically causing Sarutobi to sigh.

"I have a guess what's under them but I have no proof and honestly no matter what's under there it wont change how I think or view you. I swear on my title as Hokage of Konoha that no matter what you have under those bandages I shall neither punish nor act upon your secrets. You are in a training ground no one, and I mean _no one_ could get into, not for a medical emergency, not for a political crises, it wouldn't matter if Konoha came under attack right now they couldn't get in here. So the only one who will no about your arm is me." Danzo hesitated for just the faintest of moments before running through hand seals once more.

**Wind Style: Void Palm **Danzo called out as he thrust his left palm towards Sarutobi. At first nothing visible happened and then the professor saw the results of his rival's attack. A trench was being dug by his foes attack and the dust from it revealed what was truly happening. A triangle roughly the size of a wall was plowing towards him and anything caught on the inside of it was vaporized by the wind. Slamming Enma into the ground in front of him Sarutobi began to run through a series one handed hand seals with each hand. His left hand finished first and as soon as it did he slammed his foot down on the ground and called out his jutsu.

**Earth Style**: **Mud Dragon** Sure enough a dragon made of liquid earth shot out from the ground in front of his foot and made began to make its way around the incoming wind attack. Not a moment later he finished the hand seals with his right hand and brought it to his moth as he called out his jutsu. **Fire Style: Fire Dragon **Breathing out unleashed a dragon of equal size to the mud one from his mouth and this dragon mirrored the other dragon's actions as it snaked around the incoming attack.

Danzo watched his opponent through the void of destructive wind and was truly impressed with Sarutobi's ability to multi task. He was even more impressed when the two dragons merged once they had both circumvented his void palm. Now instead of two dragons charging him he had one massive dragon of molten lava barreling towards him. Closing his eyes and sighing at being forced to unleash another of his hidden tricks Danzo slammed his right palm onto the ground allowing the creation of the huge surge of chakra to prevent the lava attack from reaching him.

Sarutobi had been forced to close his eyes when the void palm had collided with Enma. He had no worry of the attack getting past Enma as in the monkey king's current form nothing could get past him. No he had to close his eyes because of the huge amount of dust particles being kicked up by the attack. In the brief instant he closed his eyes he felt his collaboration attack slam into something which puzzled him. Nothing should have stopped that dragon of lava.

When the wind died down Sarutobi couldn't help but be awed at what he saw. A living breathing tree easily larger than most found within the Forest of Death had sprung up in front of Danzo. He was about to ask what had happened when two identical looking Danzos ran out from behind the tree and started to run a circle around him. Pulling Enma up from the ground and grabbing the staff by one of its ends he hurled it at the Danzo on his right while he personally went to deal with the Danzo on his left.

Danzo inwardly smiled at his opponents effective method for dealing with shadow clones without actually creating any yourself. Right as Sarutobi was about to close the distance between them Danzo threw a hidden kunai at the old man's leg. He was about to smirk when he heard that odd clank once more right as the image of Sarutobi vanished in a puff of smoke and was replaced with that of the adamantine staff. Before he could react the lone staff replicated itself and quickly had him imprisoned within a box of unbreakable steel. Taking a sigh Danzo did what he had swore he wouldn't do at the beginning of the spar.

Sarutobi charged the Danzo before him and his keen eye caught the incoming vacuum blade. Without running through any hand seals Sarutobi dropped to his knees and instead of sliding across the ground he ended up sliding into the ground. The vacuum blade slashed at the ground and left a deep trench yet Sarutobi was no where to be seen. Eye widening for a moment before the entire clone dispelled in a puff of smoke to reveal Sarutobi grinning from his position behind the clone. Looking over and seeing his summon had captured the real Danzo he grinned and threw a lone kunai as fast as he possible could at the spot on the cage where Enma's eye appeared. Right before the kunai impacted the impenetrable cage the wall vanished in a puff of smoke allowing the kunai to pass the smoke cleared Sarutobi gasped at what he saw. His kunai had been dead accurate. It had sunk up to its hilt in the middle of Danzo's forehead right between the bandage wearing man's eyes. Jaw hanging open Sarutobi stared in horror as his teammate fell to the ground dead. The shock of seeing his friend dead faded into the shock of seeing his oldest friend's corpse faze out of existence only for a new and very alive Danzo to run out from behind the cage running through hand seals.

**Wind Style: Vacuum Serial Waves** Danzo called out as he rapidly twisted his head this way and that way blowing out several enormous wind blades as he did. The super charged attack charged at the dumbfounded Sarutobi who barley managed to begin running through hand seals before it was to late.

**Fire Style: Emperor Dragon Fang **Thought the hokage as he unleashed a concentrated spike of pure fire aimed at the center of Danzo's attack. The fire attack was no where near strong enough to turn Danzo's attack back against him but it was just enough to stop the attack in its track and cause the two attacks to cancel one another out. Panting slightly Sarutobi raised his hand to catch the flying pole before setting on the ground beside him. Slinging an arm around it and leaning on it to conserve strength Sarutobi examined the man walking towards him.

Danzo had removed all his bandages. His entire right arm was a paler color than the rest of his body as well as his right arm looked a bit more muscular than his other body parts. On the arm were ten eyes, nine wide open to reveal fully matured sharingan, one shut tight. In Danzo's right eye socket rested not the eye Sarutobi had grown accustomed to seeing but instead a fully matured sharingan eye with three tomes.

"My sensei's cells to control those sharingan eyes and to use his wood style ninjutsu. And as many sharingan as you could salvage from the Uchiha massacre. Now it makes sense why so many of Itachi's attacks seemed to demolish the eyes all together. I understand that much and can see why you would do it but, how did you survive the kunai? I was certain that killed you." Danzo nodded.

"It did. Or rather it would have were I not using the strongest and most forbidden optical jutsu. Izanagi." Sarutobi and Danzo both stood there staring at one another for the longest time, each one measuring the other up. "I know you are a man of your word Hiruzen which is why I revealed to you my secrets. I trust you…"

"Silence!" The powerful voice of Enma called as the staff transformed back into that of the monkey king. He stood a head or two taller than Hiruzen and had bushy white fur which jutted out from beneath his clothes and framed his face. He wore a black long sleeved shirt and black pants with mesh armor underneath it. Over this he wore a tiger patterned sleeveless kimono tied together by a brown sash. Standing to his full height and placing a hand on Sarutobi's shoulder the monkey king allowed chakra to enter the old man's system. "Do not attempt to cast you genjutsu on Sarutobi." Danzo's sharingan eye focused on him in shock. "What? Did you think I would not be able to assist Sarutobi in dispelling genjutsu?" Hiruzen chuckled and shook his head.

"My old friend you deserve the title 'Darkness of Shinobi'. Only you would think to tell me how much you trust me with your mouth while your eyes made sure I would not tell anyone. Fret not I have no care to tell the world what you have done to your arm." Danzo narrowed his eyes at Sarutobi.

"What are you playing at? You forced me to reveal my secrets yet you don't want anything for keeping quiet about them. That makes no sense."

"I have no hidden agenda or scheme Danzo. I cannot force you to trust me but I can force you into a situation that shows my trust in you. Having you as my advisor would be immensely beneficial to the village. As it stands I have grown too soft over the years to handle the darker matters of the village while you are as good at working in the shadows as you have always been. _If_ you were to trust me and work with me instead of against me I _might_ decide to help you with increasing the numbers of your ROOT operatives and give them some missions my standard shinobi cannot be caught handling. _If_ you were to trust me I _might_ let you correct some things I know need correcting but have no knowledge of how to correct them." With a nod from his summoner Enma dispelled himself back to his home realm.

The two giants among ninja locked gaze with one another for what felt like an eternity. Eventually Danzo narrowed his eyes at Sarutobi.

"Why now? What has brought on this sudden change in your persona?" Sighing Sarutobi closed his eyes in thought.

"Having my trust in the ninja of my village thrown back in my face. Having to constantly watch the hero of this village be scorned and not having the guts to do anything about it. Being disgusted by the weak man I have become. With or without you Danzo I am going to whip this village back into shape, into what my senseis would have wanted it to be. I simply figured you, who have always wanted to shape the village, would like a say in how I change the village. I will not hold your secrets against you in arguments to try and gain your support that way." Turning away from the stupefied Danzo the hokage began to walk away from his rival and towards the exit of the training grounds. "Either you trust me and wish to help or you don't. The seals to open and close the door to this training ground are the same ones we used when we were kids in the academy to tell the other where we were."

Without another word Sarutobi exited the training grounds leaving a stunned and bare chested Danzo standing alone in the most exotic training grounds in all of Konoha.

8888

**Wind Style: Great Breakthrough** A blonde boy with bright orange bandages covering his eyes shouted as he tried yet again to master the new jutsu his teacher had given him a week ago. All around him dozens of shadow clones were doing the exact same thing he was doing. In a tree watching his students _unique_ method of training was silver haired ANBU wearing a dog mask. It had only been a week since he had given Naruto his first jutsu yet with the kid's shadow clones he had trained for easily over a year. And it was showing. His jutsu was not perfect by any means but it was at a chunin level of mastery.

Closing his orange little book and hopping out of the tree he began to walk towards the original Naruto.

"Dismiss your clones Naruto." Without argument the blonde did as was told and sent a mental command out to his clones. In groups of ten the hundred or so clones dispelled themselves and Naruto was forced to stand stock still and concentrate to keep the onslaught of memories of knocking him unconscious. Shaking his head once the last of the clones had dispelled themselves he grinned up at his sensei.

"Time to pick a number?" Naruto heard the swish of his sensei's hair signifying a negative. It had taken a month of trail and error and a good bit of experimentation but he could now amplify his sense of hearing to ten times that of an ordinary human and his sense of touch was easily a hundred fold of most humans.

"Nope. Today we are gonna do things a bit different. I think its time I introduce you to an old acquaintance mine and see about getting you some new clothes." Naruto grinned and nodded his head. He loved his orange jumpsuit dearly but after the hellish training he had been going through for the last month his previously raggedy looking clothes now looked like nothing more than rags stitched together by a drunk old blind lady. "In fact I heard that the Black Dragon recently came under new ownership. For _mysterious _reasons of course." The blonde couldn't help but chuckle. His life had slowly begun to turn around ever since he had been trained by Silver-sensei.

His sensei had _asked_ several restaurants and shops to either service Naruto or certain illegit dealings they made might _accidentally_ come to light. With more nutrients in his diet Naruto's physic had changed drastically. No longer was he the squirt he used to be. He had grown a good couple of inches and his body had gained a lean muscular tone to it as his inhuman metabolism turned all nutrients he ate directly into muscle. Instead of gaining the bulky body he had feared he had instead gained a toned body with muscles stronger than steel cords in ever inch of his body.

"Oh how sad. And I was just beginning to get along so well with the old shopkeeper." Dog chuckled and shook his head.

"I will meet you outside the Black Dragon in say an thirty minutes. Got it?" Naruto saluted his sensei and placed his sword on his back using chakra to keep it in place. With that done he raced off not towards the village but instead towards the nearest tree. Before he reached it he jumped headlong at the tree with both arms stretched out to grab the tree. Twisting his body in the air so that his back was facing the tree he latched onto the bark of the tree using chakra in his finger tips and swung himself into the shadows on the other side of the tree. Naruto did not come out on the other side of the tree.

Dog shook his head and sighed. Yet again he had watched with both eyes as Naruto vanish into the shadows and yet again he could not see what it was the blonde did.

"I seriously have to get him to explain that little stunt to me." And then Dog vanished in a shushin himself.


	4. Chapter 4

**Roshane: excuse me how would you have naruto react? Hmmm? If i have him turn all evil and lash out at the village then the story is over. As for wanting to protect the village you made the same mistake so many who review my stories do. I NEVER had him say he wanted to protect the entire village. he wants their respect and to protect the few precious people to him.**

**SpiritWolf35: No Naruto wont be wearing the blindfold the entire story. But try and blindfold yourself for a day and then take it off. See how much more you rely on your other senses.**

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><p><strong>I had some prick send me a rather long message sayng that I NEEDED to put a disclaimer and state that i do not own Naruto and that I am not Kishimoto. My response. How do you know i'm not Kishimoto? I could have come on here and wrote this story just to screw with all of your minds!<strong>

**Sadly i am not Kishimoto so i will do the disclaimer to appease the prick who sent me that message, you know who you are. From here on out i shall make it my goal to figure out a fool proof plan to take Naruto way from Kishimono, the man who is ruining what could be a great Anime.**

**Impure Perfection does not own Naruto.**

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><p><strong>Summer Breaks Over<strong>

As Naruto strolled through the door into The Black Dragon he moved the orange bandages preventing him from seeing. Sliding them up his head to resemble a forehead protector he looked around the store. The store itself looked almost the exact same as the last time he was in it, aside from the new window. But one glaring difference was the man working behind the cash register this time. Instead of the hulking man there was now a average looking man of medium height with soft black eyes. He wore basic civilian clothes with a white apron over the front. He would have been an entirely average looking person.

Were it not for his hair. On top of his head was a perfectly round sphere of light brown hair half the size of his head. That would have been odd in and of itself however having a second one half the size of the first and a third half the size of the second. Only one family in all of Konoha would have the audacity to do their hair up in such an atrocious manner.

"Hey mister Hagurashi!" The old man lifted his head up and stopped examining the kunai he had been sharpening to see who had called his name. Upon seeing Naruto the old man grinned.

"Hey! Naruto-chan!" Grinning like a fool the old man came out from behind the counter. "What can I do for one of Ten-chan's little friends?"

"I need new clothes." Ten Ten's father looked Naruto over and nodded.

"Yes you do. Those are hideous looking." Naruto flinched.

"They're not that bad…" Mister Hagurashi cut him off.

"Yes they are. I'm almost ashamed to have you in my store wearing those things."

"Now see here…" Naruto growled out only to be cut off once again.

"I cant! Your clothes are so ugly I cant even look at you."

"I got this at half price." Hagurashi scoffed.

"You would have to pay me to handle those things with a ten foot pole."

"They keep me warm!" Naruto shouted, desperately trying to defend his clothes.

"And I'm sure if someone told you wearing a skunk for underwear would keep you warm you would try it."

"They have lots of pockets and are durable that's good for fighting."

"Fighting? Ha! No one can face you cause your hideous clothes scare them away." Naruto growled and narrowed his eyes at the man who did the same. The two held the stare down for a few seconds before both burst out laughing. All customers in the store looked at the odd pair and if possible put more space between themselves and the insane shop keeper and demon brat. "So you need clothes do you? Well you head into the changing room and I'll see what I can find. Only the best for one of Ten-chan's little friends."

"Okay thanks Mister Hagurashi." Naruto casually walked to the back of the store, ignoring the glares and whispers coming from other customers. With his enhanced senses the whispers weren't whispers. He heard every vile thought the people had and each word they spoke was like a deafening roar in his ears. Before he would have cowered and averted their eyes. Now. Now he stood tall and proud allowing his chakra to hum to life inside his body giving him a menacing aura that easily stopped anyone from bothering him before then even began.

He hadn't been standing in the changing room two seconds when a wad of clothes was chucked over the door.

"There you go Naruto-chan try those on!"

Ten seconds Naruto stepped out looking _exactly _like Ten Ten. He glared at the grinning old man before going back into the changing room and throwing the clothes over the side.

"Next!" Naruto shouted as a chuckling Hagurashi walked back into the store. When the next bundle of clothes came over the stall door Naruto actually examined them before trying them on. Since they didn't look familiar he dawned the new clothing and stepped out to look at him in a mirror. He liked what he saw.

He was wearing a tight black muscle shirt that hinted at the muscles he now had thanks to the new training. Over that was an unzipped long sleeved midnight black jacket with the right sleeve torn off at the shoulder. The jacket reached past his hips and ended about mid thigh and it hung loosely on his body, meaning there was an abundance of room on the inside of the jacket. And all that extra space had been put to use by being covered in hidden pockets and anchor points to stash various ninja gear. Naruto was wearing a pair of black and grey combat pants that fit tightly around his waist but hung loosely around his legs and ended just before the shoes started. His shoes were the only clothing with any color. They were a pair of crimson red, steel toed combat boots so dark they bordered on being black.

"Now that is much more like it." Naruto grinned as he looked himself over in the mirror.

"I liked the other outfit better but I guess you look okay in that. Much better than that hideous jumpsuit you walked in with." Hearing of his old clothes he turned around and was about to grab them when he noticed they were gone. Naruto growled and narrowed his eyes at the old man.

"Where is my jumpsuit?"

"Well I took a nice long staff and lifted them up, a safe distance away from me, over the other customers, and into the incinerator we keep going in the back."

"You burnt my jacket!"

"To a crisp." The bun headed man said with a grin on his face. Naruto was about to go on a rampage when a familiar scent assaulted his nose. Turning his head he saw Dog stroll in the front door reading the same perverted book he always was.

"Oi! Silver-sensei what do you think?" The ANBU lifted his head just enough to peer over the top of his book and examine Naruto.

"Looks good." And that settled it for Naruto. If his sensei thought it looked good then it was the best that there could possibly be.

"I'll take ten of these please." Hagurashi nodded and went to the cash register to ring it up. Naruto took his wallet out to pay but was stopped when Dog spoke up again.

"This one will be on me Naruto. After this set of clothing however your on your own." Naruto nodded and tried his best to keep his excitement down. Someone was buying him something! So far only the old man had ever done that for him and to have his favorite and only sensei doing it filled Naruto with glee. But his sensei had warned him about letting his emotions control him so he tried his best to keep the excitement under wraps. He still ended up with a massive grin on his face.

Dog chuckled to himself as he watched the youth try his hardest not to bounce around in joy. But Dog's amusement stopped when he realized something. Naruto was this happy just because someone bought him some clothes. What kind of life did you have to live to end up like that? Pushing that thought aside he paid for the clothing and passed it to Naruto.

"Be back in a second Silver-sensei." Before Dog could say anything Naruto fell back into the shadows and vanished from sight. Hagurashi's jaw fell open and he was about to speak when Naruto walked out of another shadow on the other side of the room. "Okay I'm back. Now where to Silver-sensei?"

"To a friends. Now hold still." Placing his hand on Naruto's head Dog performed a single shushin and then both were gone. Leaving behind a bewildered old shop keeper.

8888

Naruto and Dog appeared outside a ordinary looking building. In one of the windows was a small sign that read 'Tattoo.' Naruto looked at the building suspiciously for a second then a look of realization spread across his face followed shortly by a grin.

"Oh I know this place. Mr. Rhino works here!" Having said that the blonde boy strolled ahead.

"Mr. Rhino?" Dog asked to no one in particular. Seeing he had been left in the street he quickly walked in to the building as well. The sight he walked in on was rather… amusing to say the least. A huge man with a vicious white scar on his face was in a wrestling match with Naruto in the middle of a tattoo parlor filled with ninja staring at the two. It seemed the two combatants were grappling over a cherry flavored lollipop.

"Give that to me you thieving brat!"

"You owe me! I bought you that entire crate of sake!" Dog as well as the rest of the occupants in the room sweat dropped.

"And I let you duck in here when your in trouble! So give it back!" When dog cleared his throats the two froze. Naruto had his foot pressed against the man's cheek and pulling with all his might against the man's right arm which held the lollipop. The man was pulling Naruto away from his right arm with his left arm and was partially on top of the blonde kid. If a certain snake loving Sanin had been present at the time he would have gladly joined in after shedding all his clothes.

"Would one of you like to explain?" Dog asked in a even tone.

"This bastard wont let me have any candy!"

"The candy is for those who got a tattoo. Not a little snot who thinks he owns the place."

"Bah as many times as I bought you sake I should own this place!"

"Enough!" Dog shouted cutting off the argument before it could escalate. Again. "He is here to get a tattoo so he does get the candy."

"Ha!" Naruto shouted as he jerked the candy from the man's hand and leapt up holding the candy like some sort of trophy. "Hold up. I'm getting a tattoo?"

"Ah so that's why you brought the runt by." The man said and now that he was standing Dog got a better look at the old friend he hadn't seen in quite a while. He was easily six foot four and filled out to the point of being bulky yet not quite fat. His skin was a dark olive bordering on black. He wore a plain white t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his shoulders revealing broad shoulders and forearms bulging with muscles. For pants he wore a pair of light brown khaki shorts. But there were two very specific details about this man that stood out the most. The first were the series of seals littered all over his body in different spots, his wrist, his shoulders, the back of his hands and his palms.

And finally the scar on his face. It was a nasty looking white scar that started out as nothing more than a faint white line at the tip of his nose. The white line moved up his nose and onto his forehead and by the time it reached the end of the nose it was wide enough to touch both eyes. The scar came to an abrupt stop just above his eyebrows.

"Ya. He needs a better method for carrying his sword around." Naruto's face scrunched up in confusion and he looked between the two men.

"Oi oi what am I missing here. How can Rhino man help me carry my sword?" The large man slapped Naruto on the back nearly toppling the kid.

"I will have you know I am a master of a rare and almost extinct art. It is the art of creating permanent and indestructible seals on someone's body using an ancient method of tattooing." Naruto's eyes were as large as saucers as he looked at the man in awe. Shaking his head the blonde snapped out of his daze.

"You have to teach me!" Rhino cocked his head to one side.

"How to tattoo?"

"No no! The seals! I mean being able to draw a few squiggles and lock anything inside it is so awesome. Or being able to do super cool things like increase gravity or slow a person down or other stuff like that."

"Where did you hear you could increase gravity with seals?" Naruto pointed at Dog who just so happened to be whistling innocently and looking anywhere but at the duo. Rhino sucked in a breath through his nose and shook his head. "So what kind of seals was he using?"

"Well he put this weight increase seal thingy on my sword so that its harder to swing and I get better at swinging it. And he put a gravity seal on me so that I get stronger and faster as well. It makes swimming impossible!" Rhino chuckled.

"Well puppy since you showed the kid the use of seals mind if I teach him?"

"Knock yourself out. He can send a shadow clone or two over here every morning while I get the original. And…" Naruto cut off the rest of what Dog was going to say.

"Wait wait this is _the_ puppy? The one you were always talking about?" Now that caught Dog's attention.

"Always talking about?" Naruto nodded and faced Dog totally missing the huge grin on Rhino's face.

"Ya whenever I duck in here to avoid my _fanclub_ on my birthdays he tells me stories. He always called people animal names and puppy was one of the ones he usually talked about. Said something about you being head over heels for a kitty cat or something like that." Dog chocked on air and Rhino let out a roaring laughter that shook his entire frame.

"Oh yeah! I forgot about that. Say did you ever manage to pin that little pussy cat?" Dog cleared his throat and thanked kami he was wearing a mask to hide his blush.

"Anyways!" The embarrassed ANBU said obviously uncomfortable with the conversation. "Can you give Naruto a storage seal tattoo on his palm and teach him a few things?" Rhino waved the question off.

"But of course! In fact I will give the little brat his first one free. So a storage seal on his palm, that shouldn't be to hard." Rhino walked in to the back and when Dog followed the large man Naruto decided he should as well. Walking through a curtain of dark red beads Naruto came into a smallish square room with three walls covered in various inks of every color imaginable. On the fourth wall right next to the door Naruto just walked through was a desk with a variety of different tools littered across the surface of the workbench. In the middle of the room was a single backless bar stool. "Hop on up kid and this wont take to long."

"Excuse me but can I get more than just the seal tattoo?" Rhino raised an eyebrow at the boy signaling for him to continue. "Well I might want more later so can I get a design that goes all the way up my arm with slots to put various seals in at a later date?" The tattoo artist put a hand on his chin and hummed thoughtfully.

"What kind of design were you thinking?" Naruto grinned.

"A golden yellow nine tailed fox with the mouth on my right palm and the tails going up and over my shoulder." Rhino's jaw fell open and Dog dropped the book Naruto had never seen him drop, no matter how intense the training spars had gotten.

"Your kidding?" Rhino finally managed to ask. Naruto just shook his head negative.

"Nope. And yes I know about my tenant and I still want it." Rhino and Dog shared a look. When Dog nodded Rhino sighed.

"Alright kid. But I gotta warn you doing a tattoo this size is gonna leave your arm numb and useless for a good week."

"But since its me that means about a day or two right?"

"With your regenerative abilities it should be only a day, if that." Dog said speaking for the first time since they had entered the back room. "Which means tomorrow we are gonna focus on chakra control." Naruto groaned and flopped into the chair.

"Great!" Rhino chuckled and shook his head.

"Well you better get rid of the shirt and jacket so we don't ruin your new ensemble."

"Roger!" Dog waited until he saw Naruto's face when Rhino pulled out the tools before leaving.

8888

Getting a tattoo that covers your entire arm and a good bit of your shoulder hurts like Hell. Getting a tattoo that size using a modified ancient technique that embeds chakra as well as thick sealing ink into your skin hurts even worse. Naruto was laid out on his bed staring up at the ceiling and trying to ignore the rumbling in his stomach. It was late in the afternoon and only He was starved but he just couldn't find it in him to get out of bed and move across town to Ichiraku's.

"Ayame-nee-chan is gonna kill me for this." Naruto said to no one before vanishing from his bed and reappearing sprawled out across the counter. Ayame let out a shriek of surprise and prepared to cut the intruder in half when she noticed the blonde hair. The cleaver stopped inches from Naruto's nose. "Hey Ayame-neechan." Naruto greeted nervously. His bandages were once again covering his eyes but he didn't need to see to know she was glaring at him.

"Naruto-kun if you don't have a good reason for scaring me half to death I may have to banish you from the stand for the rest of the month."

"I cant move my right arm and walking hurts like crazy."

"Why would your…" Ayame stopped upon seeing the golden yellow fox tattoo that covered all of Naruto's arm. "Is that a tattoo?"

"Ya." Naruto groaned and sat up, wincing as his arm and shoulder shouted in protest. "Special tattoo. Later I'm going to be able to add different seals to it. Right now the only seal I have on it a storage seal on my palm." Cringing in pain Naruto twisted his hand to reveal his palm which sure enough had a simple storage seal in the middle of his palm with the fox's mouth open around the seal. "I'd show you what it can do but Rhino-sensei said not to use the seal for a day or two to let it fully align with my chakra network. Or some other nonsense like that. So can I get a hokage sized bowl of miso ramen or am I ban from the stand?"

Ayame giggled and shook her head.

"Your fine Naruto-kun, I'll let you off the hook this time since your wounded." With that she got to work on his order and before long Naruto had a massive bowl filled to the brim with what he considered food from heaven above. And then he discovered a new problem.

Eating left handed was near impossible. He looked up and saw Ayame was busy taking orders and fixing food and Naruto was certain no one in the village would dare help him eat. Naruto sighed and was about to resign himself to licking the ramen up when an angelic sounding giggle interrupted his thoughts.

"Blind and you cant move your arm? Well aren't you a sorry sight?" It was a marvelous voice, soft and as pleasing to the ears as the finest of instruments. The words… eh not so much. According to his sense of smell it was a young girl who smelt like a bouquet of roses, tiger lilies, daisies and the faintest hints of babies breath. That smell was mixed in heavily with that of the air just before a storm. According to Naruto's senses of sound and touch the girl was standing behind and to the right of him and leaning over to smirk at him.

"Well excuse me for training as hard so hard I cant move." Naruto fired back.

"Your not excused cause I'm not always gonna be here to help you." Before Naruto could figure out what she meant he felt her sit on the stool next to him and grab his chopsticks. He could hear the noodles being lifted out of the air and working on a hunch he opened his mouth. Sure enough a second or two later he felt a mouthful of noodles gently being put in his mouth.

Naruto didn't see it but Ayame was standing on the other side of the stand watching the young purple wearing blonde girl feed her adoptive brother. The ramen chef tried her best not to squeal and ruin the moment. But she would tease him about it for the rest of his life.

8888

Naruto woke up the next morning and groaned as he sat up. His arm still stung a bit but it was manageable today where as yesterday had been a chore just to move. Creating a single hand seal two clones popped into existence.

"Head over to Rhino-sensei's and learn all you can before dispelling." He both heard and felt as the two clones saluted him before vanishing into the ample shadows his room provided this early in the morning. Hauling himself out of bed he sauntered into the kitchen and fixed himself breakfast. After eating, showering, and throwing on a new pair of clothes Naruto did just as his clones did. Only difference was he walked out of the shadows into the training field.

One of the hidden benefits of his training over the month was the fact that he could now shadow step from one side of the village to the other in a single step instead of the ten it used to take him.

"Ah Naruto I was wondering if you were gonna show up today." Though he had been blindfolded Naruto wasn't surprised by his sensei voice. He head smelt the jonin the instant he had stepped out of the shadows.

"So what are we doing today silver-sensei?" Naruto heard and felt as Dog leapt off a tree limb roughly ten yards to the left and three yards above Naruto's head. However where the jonin landed confused Naruto. After a month of spending all day and night running around and fighting in the same training ground Naruto knew the lay out of the land by heart. And Naruto knew for certain that where Dog had landed should have been about twenty yards into the lake. Yet he hadn't heard a splash.

"Your training for the day is to walk out and reach me. And no shadow clones till you can do it roughly on your own. Each time you fail, which I'm sure is gonna be plenty, pick a number one through seven." Naruto's head dropped and his shoulders slumped.

"This is gonna be hell isn't it?" Dog made no sounds whatsoever. He didn't move at all. But Naruto knew. _Knew_ that he was grinning like the Cheshire Cat. Sighing Naruto walked to the edge of the water and set a foot out on the water cautiously. Pushing a good bit of chakra through his foot he stepped out onto the water…

And sunk like a rock. Dog chuckled as he watched Naruto surface and start cursing the moment his head was above water. It probably was gonna be hell. But when the summer was over Naruto would be ready for the academy for certain.

8888

**Two Weeks Later**

Sarutobi was sitting behind his desk looking over the suggested changes to the academy curriculum suggested by his new advisor. Danzo. The old war hawk was sitting to Sarutobi's left watching as his old rival read the file over. For the third time. When he finished the hokage chuckled and set the paper down.

"The parents of the academy students are gonna have a heart attack when they read this."

"Are you rejecting it?" Hiruzen shook his head.

"Oh no on the contrary my friend I love it. _This_ is what the academy should be like, I have no idea how flower arranging weaseled its way into the curriculum but I plan on removing it. I'm just trying to think of how to get the parents to agree to this."

"You are hokage are you not?"

"I am, but this is why we work together. You know what needs to be done and I know how to do it so that it isn't me forcing my will on others. While I agree your forces are a force to be reckoned with, a ninja by choice will always go to greater lengths than an autonomous robot. Speaking of which did you hear what happened in Kiri?"

"You mean how a group of skilled bandits joined the rebels? Yes I did. Did you hear about the four orphans that went missing last week?"

"No I didn't. I hope they are doing fine." Danzo nodded.

"They will do fine, they are a tough bunch." Both old men shared a knowing look for a second before Sarutobi returned to reading over the proposal.

"I think a few of the instructors listed here are going to be a bit difficult to corral into teaching." Danzo shrugged.

"Not really. For most a good pay will do the trick, some of the others just need payment of a different sort. Dango for one, time off for another, permission to perform 'research' for that woman, and offer a custom made set of shades for him and they should all fall into line." Hiruzen chuckled and was about to retort when the doors to his office opened unexpectedly. In marched Homaru and Konharu.

"Hiruzen we would like your reasons for removing us from the positions of advisors."

"I see no need to list a reason. I am hokage I can remove you if I want." Homaru grinned and pulled out a piece of paper.

"That isn't necessarily true Sarutobi. According to the village charter 'The hokage must list viable reasons for removing any person or persons from any appointed position or positions of power of authority. If no reason is listed by the hokage then the person or persons cannot be removed from their position or positions unless the entire clan council gives their consent to the removal of the specified persons.' So do you have a reason?" Sarutobi looked at Danzo for a moment before looking back to the smug looking pair.

"Okay." Both looked ready to admonish him for ever trying to be rid of them when Sarutobi continued speaking. "My reasons for removing you are simple. You siphoned off funds from the monthly allowance I set up for Naruto as well as the other orphans and orphanages across the village." Both of the former advisors' jaws went slack and their eyes widened. "You prevented me from reading reports of unjust price gouging against one Naruto Uzumaki. You gave _my_ ANBU orders to allow mobs to harm and chase Naruto Uzumaki on his birthday. Because of these actions I deemed you unable to properly perform the job of advisors without prejudice or allowing your personal feelings to interfere with your work." Grinning the old monkey spread his hands out before him. "Now is there any thing else you would like to say?"

Both Homaru and Konharu looked flabbergasted for a full minute. When they finally managed to recover they turned their gaze on Danzo who was doing exactly what he was born to do. Look totally emotionless and unaffected by anything you say or do. When he felt their gazes on them he turned his head slightly to look at them directly.

"Is there some business you have with me?" Homaru looked ready to say something but apparently thought better of it as he turned and marched back out of the office. Konharu followed after him, slamming the doors as she left.

Danzo and Sarutobi looked at one another for a few seconds before both finally broke down and started to laugh. Well Sarutobi actually laughed while Danzo just sort of chuckled, but eh, whatever floats your boat.

"Now that we have had our fun shall we return to business?" Sarutobi asked, obviously in a much better mood than he had been previously.

8888

**One Week and Five Days Later**

Across town Dog stepped into a small tattoo parlor and without saying a word walked into the backroom to see how his student was progressing in the field of seal making.

"No no no! That's not how you draw it!" As Dog stepped through the red curtain of beads he saw one Naruto clone arguing with Rhino over whether or not he drew a symbol correct or not. The other shadow clone was reading over a book on seals and examining the sample Rhino had created for him.

"Yo!" Dog greeted. Rhino and the clone ignored him and while the other clone looked up from his book and waved at Dog.

"Hey Silver-sensei! Did you know you can create an area seal that slows down all objects, persons and attacks inside the field aside from the creator of the seal?" Dog blinked. No he actually hadn't known that.

"Sure did. Minato-sensei used that seal once, shocked me the first time I saw it." The clone grumbled about know it all sensei's and went back to reading its book. A rather loud shout caught Dog's attention and he looked back just in time to see Rhino dispel the clone it had been arguing with.

"Take that you little brat!" The reading clone didn't even look up from the book he was reading and created another clone to take the previously dispelled clone's place. It appeared right where the last one had been and was sticking its tongue out at Rhino. And it was dispelled in under two seconds. Dog sweat dropped as the process repeated several times. A clone would be dispelled only to be replaced by another one making a different face than the last one. After the twelfth clone Rhino gave up and flopped back onto his but. "You little runt! I'd love to ring your neck right about now."

"I honestly don't think you would be able to catch him if he went all out." Dog said causing Rhino to look in his direction. "He may not be the best at fighting yet but his speed and agility are way beyond chunin levels when he takes off all the seals I placed on him. Combine that with his mind and he is one Hell of a target to try and hit. How is progress here?"

"Surprising its amazing. The little brat absorbs this stuff like some sort of sponge. The theory and mechanics of it just click with the kid, half the time he is explaining something to me that I missed or didn't quite understand fully. If he had better hand writing he could put to use most of what he knows."

"As he is now?"

"He cant pull of more than a D-rank seal without risking it backfiring or malfunctioning. Anything more complex than that and he just cant draw it well enough for it to be safe." Turning to glare at the brat Rhino raised his voice a bit. "Which is why I tell him to practice and stop trying to draw new seals!" Both clones flipped him the bird without looking up from what they were doing. Grumbling Rhino marched back out to the front of the shop and headed to the fridge he kept stocked with beer. "Want one?"

"I'll pass."

"Suit yourself." Pulling out a beer he popped the top and took a swing of it. The dark skinned man looked thoughtful for a second. "You know…" He started catching the attention of Dog. "I've only ever seen one man eat through knowledge about seals like that kid. You don't think…" He left it opened and watched how Dog responded.

"I don't think I know." Rhino chuckled and shook his head before drinking some more from his beer bottle.

"So the sparrow knocked up Red Death and gave birth to the fox? Haha and I never would have guessed it."

"That is a triple S-class secret. So far only four people know that." Rhino just gave him a dismissive wave of the hand.

"Ya ya I know I know. I've been dealing with super uber, top secret, mega hush hush stuff since before you were even a pup. Now scat puppy dog I got an arrogant little brat to teach how to doodle properly." Dog watched the man walk back into the room and listened as arguing started up once again. Laughing the clone dispelled itself.

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Across town the real Dog froze at receiving the memories of its shadow clone. He paid for it by receiving a powerful roundhouse kick to the stomach.

"Alright! I finally hit you!" Naruto cheered with a huge grin on his face. That grin lasted right up until he heard and felt a kunai being thrown at him at high speeds. Taking a step to the front and slightly to the left he swung his sword just in time to cut the kunai in half removing the blade form the hilt.

Another one of the hidden advantages of the training. Before he had been shoving huge amounts of chakra through the sword and only a tiny fraction of the chakra was actually cutting anything. Now. Now easily half of the chakra in the sword was wind natured chakra wrapped tightly around the blade and increasing the cutting potential of the blade to unbelievable levels. His sword had more cutting potential in a single swing than most swords could squeeze out in ten swings. Metal, wood, chakra reinforced steel, and most other materials of moderate thickness were easy for Naruto to cut.

"Well lets call it a day shall we?" Naruto didn't relax.

"Why?"

"Cause this is your last day before the academy starts up and I figured you would want to take a day off."

"Na, I'll rest when I'm dead. Can you give me a new jutsu instead? Please!" Dog chuckled and shook his head.

"Another one?"

"Ya! You only taught me that one." Even blindfolded he knew his sensei had just raised an eyebrow. "Okay two including the shadow clone jutsu. Come on just one more." Dog laughed.

"Alright. First option, Wind Style: Air bullet. Upgraded and more damaging version of the Great Breakthrough. Second Option: Wind Style: Great Barrier. A defensive version of the Great breakthrough that creates a barrier of wind, what it can protect you from depends on your mastery of it. Last option is one I really don't know how to use without the use of a fan since I copied it from a fan user, Wind Style: Vacuum Jet. Basically gathers air from one space and pushes it into another area. I suggest…"

"The last one!" Naruto shouted cutting Dog off.

"Why would you want the last one?" Naruto chuckled a sinister sounding chuckle.

"Are you kidding me? Think of all you can do with that if you can master it? I can speed up kunai, infuse long range objects with wind chakra, if I get it strong enough I can move big objects, if I get it precise enough I can turn it into a wind cannon. The possibilities are limitless!" Dog watched in fascination as Naruto listed use after use that the jutsu could possibly used for.

'_This is the kid everyone calls the dead last? This is the boy everyone thinks is stupid and clueless? This boy has more potential than his father. Minato-sensei I hope you are proud of your son.'_ Seeing Naruto still ranting about the uses of the jutsu Dog cleared his throat.

"I will teach you the jutsu on one condition." Naruto was bouncing on his feet in anticipation.

"Okay okay whatever come on teach me!"

"You have to explain your shadow trick." Naruto's enthusiasm died. He stopped bouncing and glared at Dog.

"No."

"Naru…"

"No! The old man said clans can declare certain things their own personal jutsu well since I am the only Uzumaki I declare that _my_ jutsu." Dog sighed.

"I know over a thousand jutsu. A good portion of that is clan techniques I have copied off my comrades in the heat of battle or during a sparring session. Meaning most of the techniques I know I cant use or teach to others without being punished severely." Naruto was still standing there defiantly with his arms crossed over his chest and head turned away from Dog. "If you want to declare it a clan jutsu I will help you but I need to know how it works to make sure its safe."

Naruto was silent for a second before he sighed and dropped his arms.

"Why cant you just copy it with the special eyes you said you have?"

"That's the thing. I have been trying to do just that ever since I saw you do it. But whatever you are doing it totally negates my eye. The instant you start using the technique you vanish from that eye all together." A huge grin spread across Naruto's face.

"You mean I found away around your eye? Alright!" He cheered. "I beat Silver-sensei's eyes!" Naruto broke out into a rather childish victory dance that had Dog laughing.

"Ya ya you beat my eyes. Now can you explain the jutsu?" Naruto opened his mouth before shutting it.

"No actually I cant. And I'm being serious I really cant explain it, I mean I have a basic idea of what I'm doing but other than that I don't really know." Dog chuckled and shook his head.

"Well then I guess I cant help you list it as a clan jutsu since you don't know how it works." Seeing Naruto start to get depressed Dog sighed. "But we can deal with that later. Now do you still want to learn that new jutsu or would you prefer to call it quits?" And just like that Naruto's enthusiasm returned ten fold.

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Late that night Naruto lay awake in bed staring up in the bed. He was too excited to sleep. His mind was filled with the countless possibilities for his new jutsu once he mastered it, visions of how the academy would go, and oddly that melodious voice he had heard at Ichiraku's that once. Focusing on the mystery girl he rolled over and tried to sleep. Deciding the academy would be boring, just like it had been last year.

The worlds most surprising ninja was in for a shocking surprise in the morning.


	5. Chapter 5

Vexit: The shadow trick is going to stay with me for a while longer but it will be explained eventually because i have great plans for that trick. As for Naruto's sword, its still that same plank of wood.

Mrsoulfire: This is going to be a strick NaruXIno but i plan on throwing in a few other couples, some expected some hopefully wont be expected.

NarutoXYugitoFTW: As i believe i stated in an earlier chapter if your telling me to translate jutsu please offer to do it for me as i dont have the skill or time. He is supposed to be close to but not exactly like cannon so no i'm not changing his character cause i like it.

ChronoMitsurgi: Shadow step? I like the sound of that, might actually use it. And sorry buddy but i am going to have to explain it a bit later on in the story so that i can evolve it and not leave the readers going 'What just happened?'. Wont explain it much cause i want to keep it a secret but i cant upgrade it later without explaining it or it will look way to overpowered and i dont want that.

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><p><strong>This disclaimer is dedicated to the guy who says we shouldn't need them. Amen brother! I do not own Naruto, however as of a few days ago I do own a motorcycle.<strong>

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><p><strong>Today's plot to gain ownership rights of Naruto: I find Kishimoto, convince him that my new motorcycle is the coolest and best motorcycle in the entire universe and no other bike could possibly compare to sheer awesomeness of my bike. Then when he ask if he is deemed worthy enough to own my uber cool bike I tell him it's a deal if he gives me the ownership rights of Naruto. Because he believes my bike is so wickedly awesome he agrees, signs over ownership, and then rides off into the sunset while I try and save the show from the total and utter humiliation it is being put through right now.<strong>

**Welcome to Class**

As Iruka walked into the classroom he immediately knew something was amiss. The entire room was filled with an awkward silence that permeated the air. It took the teacher mere seconds to figure out what the cause of the mood was. Neither Ino Yamanaka nor Sakura Haruno were sitting next to Sasuke Uchiha. This was either a indication of great mental maturity in the two girls, or a sign that the apocalypse was fast coming.

Ino saw how her teacher eyed her oddly but ignored it, already knowing the cause of his curious gaze. She wasn't sitting next to Sasuke and neither was Sakura. The blonde had no idea as to why the pinkette hadn't taken the available seat but frankly she didn't care. Ino had been humiliated over the summer. Not only had the eternally half slumbering Nara Shikamaru beat her but so did the tubby Akimichi with his ever present bag of chips. It had been a friendly spar between their families yet Ino had been thoroughly thrashed by the two boys in every area of expertise.

It had only taken one look of disappointment from her dad to let Ino know things needed to change. And fast. So she had sworn of being a fan girl for the rest of the year. She hadn't informed Sakura of her decision but for some reason or another the pinkette refused to take the seat. Apparently the other fan girls had come to the same conclusion Sakura had as none of them took the seat next to their beloved Sasuke-kun.

Unbeknownst to Ino, Sakura was stealing glances at the blonde girl out the corner of her eyes.

'_I'm onto you Ino-pig. Your playing hard to get to try and get Sasuke-kun's attention, well two can play that game!' _Sakura thought to herself.

'_**Cha! We'll show that pig up!' **_Inner Sakura agreed fully.

Iruka cleared his throat to try and clear the awkwardness in the air but only succeeded in drawing the attention of the awkwardness on himself.

"Class I would like to introduce you to a last year addition to our class." That cleared the awkwardness and everyone focused on the door to see who would walk through the doors. "His name is…" Iruka was cut off as a loud and boisterous voice rang through the school.

"Names Naruto Uzumaki!" In walked a grinning blonde boy with orange bandages covering his eyes, clothes consisting of mostly black with a few other darks colors thrown in, a golden yellow fox tattoo on his exposed right arm, and a foxy smirk that instantly gained him a few fan girls of his own. Whether the youth noticed it or not was unknown to Iruka, but the teacher sure did. All around the room certain individuals reacted to the presence of the boy.

Shino Aburame. A black haired boy wearing dark sunglasses that entirely hid his eyes from view and a trench coat that covered most of his body. He stiffened in his chair and though it was hard to tell all of his attention was focused solely on the new comer. The reason for this being that the insects he had dwelling within his body began to buzz and thrum with activity as if sensing some sort of predator nearby.

Kiba Inuzuka. A boy with wild brown hair, triangle tattoos on his cheeks, a hoody, black ninja pants and a kunai holster of his right leg. A white puppy was nestles snugly in his hoody. The instant his sensitive nose caught a whiff of the new comer he sat up straighter and growled inaudibly to all human ears. Yet he noticed how the blonde boy's attention shifted to focus more on him. Kiba would have acted on it had his puppy, Akamaru, whimpered and pushed further into the coat to hide from the gaze of the new comer. That, more than the heady sent of foxes coming from the new comer, set Kiba on edge.

Hinata Hyuuga. A timid girl with pupil less white eyes, midnight blue hair, wearing a pale white hoody and blue ninja pants. She had seen the new comer once or twice around the village and had even been rescued by him once. Grinning just the tinniest bit at seeing her crush once more she activated her bloodline more a split second to gauge his strength. Had it not been for her clan's emotional training she would have shrieked. His chakra reserves were huge! And, different than everyone else's. Looking at anyone else's chakra reserves, regardless of size, was like looking at a blazing blue bonfire. But his chakra network, looking at his chakra was like looking at the sun at midday.

Sasuke Uchiha. A raven haired boy with a peculiar hair cut, pitch black eyes, a blue high collared shirt with his family crest on the back and white shorts. He didn't move a muscle in his body aside from his eyes. Instead he focused all his attention to the boy as there was something about him, something similar to his brother, that irked the Uchiha. It wasn't the clothes or his voice. Yet how the blonde carried himself and the air of confidence he walked with was akin to Sasuke's brother. And anything that even bordered on being similar to _that_ man was going to be scrutinized thoroughly by Sasuke.

Sakura Haruna. A pink haired girl with jade green eyes, wearing a red battle dress and black shorts. As her eyes roved over the new comer she instantly new how to make Sasuke jealous. It might be cruel but all was fair in love and war.

Shikamaru Nara. A black haired boy with black eyes, wearing a white vest with fishnet underneath, grey cargo pants and a kunai holster on his right leg. He lifted his head just high enough to peer over the person sitting in front of him so he could see the new comer. _'Its that boy from the playground.' _Shikamaru thought lazily remembering seeing the blonde sitting on the swing set by himself several times as Shikamaru left with his dad. _'Troublesome.' _And with that the lazy genius flopped back onto the desk hoping to catch some more sleep before the shiola hit the fan.

Choji Akimichi. A well rounded boy with red hair tucked into a blue turban, wearing a green t-shirt with a white one underneath it, bandages covering his arms and legs, and grayish blue shorts. He hummed to himself thoughtfully as his thoughts ran along similar lines to that of his friend Shikamaru. Glad that the lonely boy would be in class with him he continued to munch on his potato chips.

Ino Yamanaka. A platinum blonde haired girl with silvery blue eyes, wearing a sleeveless purple shirt that stopped at her midriff, bandages covering her stomach and thighs, a short purple skirt, and white elbow warmers. Her reaction was the most pronounced. Her eyes widened as she realized it was the same boy she had fed at the ramen stand the other day. The mental note that he was cuter than she remembered made its way through the jumble of thoughts that ran through her mind. _'Oh please don't let him know I'm here. He's blind he cant see me so if I avoid him then…'_ Her thoughts were cut short as brown haired girl spoke up.

"Why are you transferring here? Did you abandon your old village?"

"No I'm not transferring here I'm just joining this class for the rest of the year." The girl cocked her head to one side in confusion and apparently the blind boy took notice of it and elaborated. He scratched the back of his head sheepishly and looked down a bit. "I failed the academy the last two years so I'm trying again okay." The girl who had been questioning him blushed and was about to apologize when Kiba burst out laughing.

"You failed, _twice_?" He asked between fits of laughter. "Alright! That means I'm not the dead last any more, you are!" Naruto scowled at Kiba for a second before his foxy smirk returned.

"You do realize you just admitted to being the dead last right?" That stopped Kiba's laughter and set off a few others in the class. The feral youth slouched down in his chair and glared at Naruto. Iruka grinned and step forward to cut the fight off before it could continue.

"Alright well now that you; have introduced yourself how about you take a seat…"

"Can I sit next to her?" Naruto asked cutting Iruka off mid sentence. Ignoring the fact he had just been interrupted he looked at the person Naruto was pointing at and was surprised to see a blushing and nervous looking Ino.

"Uh ,sure?" Naruto didn't waist a moment and bent his knees a fraction of an inch before straightening back out and launching himself up and over the classroom. Rolling mid air and then completing the flip Naruto ended up plopping down right into the chair on Ino's left. She had been sitting in the back row on the far left in the aisle seat meaning Naruto now sat in the middle of the desk. Iruka blinked at the display of accuracy from what looked like a blind boy but shrugged it off. He was about to begin the class when he realized his teaching assistant Mizuki was nowhere to be seen. Sighing he shook his head. "Class, _QUIETLY _talk amongst yourselves while I go track down Mizuki. Shouldn't be long." With that he left the room and for a total of two second silence reined over the room. And then it exploded with chatter between friends.

"I didn't know you were a ninja." Naruto said turning to face Ino.

"Yep, though how did you do that leap? Aren't you blind?" Naruto grinned and shook his head.

"Nope, I wear these bandages to help with my training." Ino's blonde eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.

"Training? By blinding yourself?" Naruto nodded his head enthusiast with a massive grin on his face.

"Yep! I've been working on moving about without seeing for the entire summer and I can mostly do everything without seeing. But enough about that, you never did tell me your name. Its been driving me nuts not having a name to go to your pretty voice." Ino blushed slightly and was thankful he couldn't see.

"My name is Ino Yamanaka. And you really think my voice is pretty?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, your voice is becoming one of my favorite things to hear. Say are you related to the nice blonde lady that own that flower shop down town?" Ino's blush intensified by his flippant compliment but she wrestled it under control as she answered.

"That is my mom actually."

"Ah!" Naruto breathed as he slowly nodded his head as if she had just solved some riddle for him. She was about to question him on it when Iruka, with Mizuki in tow, walked back into the room.

"Alright class quiet down." That worked about as well as telling a herd of buffalo to dress up in pink tutus and perform 'Swan Lake'. Iruka sucked in a breath of air before trying again. "**QUIET DOWN YOU MAGGOTS!**" That worked wonderfully as everyone instantly shut up and paid him full attention. "Mizuki and I will no longer me your teachers, we will be your base instructors. Other ninja, who specialize in one specific field, will come in and teach you as much about their field of expertise as they can in the time they are allotted. If they deem you unworthy of continuing then you will be held back a year for remedial training."

"What!" A grey haired boy shouted as he stood up in a rush. "You cant hold me back! My dad wont allow it." Iruka sighed and looked at the grinning Mizuki.

"You said you wanted to deliver the hokage's message."

"Yes I did." Mizuki said with mirth evident in his voice. Walking to the front of the class he opened his mouth. Half the class expected some long winded speech. No one was expecting the teacher to lunge forward, grab the kid by the front of his shirt, yank him over his desk and flip him onto his back so hard and fast an audible crack echoed through the class room. "'I am hokage! I control ninja affairs, including the academy you are currently sitting in. I control it, not your father, not your mother, not your brother, not your gram gram and you sure as Hell don't. So sit down. Shut up. And if you have a problem with it you can shove it up that ass you love to have kissed.' End quote."

Stepping back with a huge grin on his face Mizuki returned to his position of leaning up against the wall with his arms folded over his chest. Iruka kindly allowed the poor kid time to get back behind his desk before continuing with his lecture.

"The first and most important part of a ninja's skills is stealth. So today we will be testing your stealth in evasion. If you cannot hide until lunch then you fail. Come back at one after you have had lunch. When I give the signal you will have a five minute head start before Mizuki and I begin to chase you." Sakura raised her hand."Um, sensei what is the signal?" Iruka grinned and pulled out a flash bang and a smoke bomb. All the students eyes widened and before anyone could say or do anything Iruka threw both to the ground. A flash of light and a plume of smoke irrupted and all Hell broke loose in the class room as students rushed to be the first out the door. Sasuke, Shikamaru, Choji, Shino, Kiba and Ino all went out the windows. The other students all filled out the door.

All except Naruto. He had rolled out of his chair and into the shadow created by the flash bang the instant it had gone off. The only one who took notice of his speedy exit was one Ino Yamanaka. She was beyond curious about the enigma of a boy but she knew where she would find him for lunch. And she was determined to get some answers out of him.

Iruka and Mizuki hadn't moved during the entire thing and merely waited for the smoke to flow out of the windows which had been left open by one of the students. Both chunin chuckled.

"So you wanna chase the brat's while I set up the bell test or would you prefer to set it up?" Iruka asked. Pushing off the wall and walking towards the door Mizuki shook his head.

"Heck no you set that infernal contraption up. I much prefer chasing down little kids and making them wet themselves when I sneak up on them." Laughing he walked out the door and leisurely down the halls.

"This year is gonna be interesting." Iruka said himself as he used a shushin to move to the academy training yard.

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A panting Ino covered with a light sheen of sweat stumbled into the Ichiraku ramen stand to find Naruto slurping noodles at in inhuman pace. He wasn't dirty in the least and it was more than obvious that he wasn't tired. As soon as she set foot in the stand he stopped slurping noodles and turned to face her. Ino still thought it was eerie how he could look right at you without his eyes.

Tilting his head back he slurped up the remaining noodles dangling from his mouth before greeting her.

"Hey Ino! You wanna grab a bite?""Ya." She replied before flopping into the stool next to his.

"You heard the lady Ayame-nee-chan! One more bowl of miso ramen for the lady with the pretty voice." The ramen chef giggled as she watched the blonde girl sputter at the compliment but Ayame got to work on the order non the less.

"Why do you say that?" Ino asked.

"Say what?"

"That I have a pretty voice."

"Well since I havent seen you I cant say you look pretty but I have heard your voice and I love it. Though I'm certain your more than beautiful." Ino blushed again. She had been chasing a boy for the entire academy and here was this good looking guy flirting shamelessly with her. To say it was throwing her off balance would be a major understatement.

Before the blond could get her mind in order Mizuki stepped into the stand and slapped a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"Found you. Looks like you failed Naruto." The silver haired chunin said with far to much glee to be normal for failing a student. Naruto however didn't even seem fazed by the chunin's presence or announcement.

"No I didn't."

"Huh?"

"I said I didn't fail. The test was to hide until lunch time and then return at one. Since its ten minutes till one this counts as lunch time. Meaning, I'm safe." For a split second Ino saw unbridled rage in Mizuki's eyes and it scared her like nothing she had ever com across in her short life. Then just as quick as it had come the hatred was masked by a cool calm demeanor.

"I guess I just didn't pay attention to the time did I?" His voice, while even and controlled, carried an undertone of loathing and sarcasm so vicious it startled Ino. Naruto however didn't even react to it.

"Nope. Though I thought all chunin were supposed to be do that by instinct. Ah well you must either be one of the weaker or stupdier ones." Ayame, the ramen chef, giggled and tried her hardest to hide it while Ino looked utterly flabbergasted that Naruto would talk like that to a teacher. In a single fluid motion Naruto slapped enough money for not only his meal but Ino's as well and slid out of his stool.

The instant he was out of the stand he vanished. Both Ino and Mizuki rushed outside only to see that the blonde had vanished into thin air. Ino was more curious than she had been before lunch and headed back to the academy in search of Naruto.

Mizuki. Mizuki was doing his best to not fly into a fit of rage and killing everything he laid his eyes on. Vanishing in a shushin he teleported to a training ground to vent his anger on a training dummy before class started. Ten minutes was no where near enough time.

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Ino walked back into the class room and saw Naruto leaning back in the chair he had been sitting in earlier with his feet propped up on the desk and his hands behind his head. Strolling right past the empty seat next to Sasuke she sat down next to Naruto and was about to ask him something when both blondes sensed a disturbance in the force.

Mizuki didn't open the door. He slammed it open with enough force to crack the frame.

"We are outside now get your worthless hides out here. Pronto!" Without waiting to see if the students followed his orders Mizuki turned and marched down the hall.

Most students looked at one another in confusion. Ino looked at Naruto who was grinning a huge grin that threatened to split his face.

"Oh this year is gonna be amusing." Was all the mysterious blonde said before standing up and following the progression of students out the door. Ino followed suit.

It didn't take long to get the entire class outside. It did take a while for the students to stop staring. A single stump was in the middle of the training field with a alarm clock sitting on it. Around that was a huge labyrinth of ninja wire that encased the stump from all angles. The ninja wire was suspended from poles of varying heights and some even went straight into the ground and attached to the wire at various locations were shiny silver bells. The mesh of wire was roughly fifty feet thick with a three foot clearing surrounding the stump.

Iruka grinned seeing the stupefied reactions from all the students. Except Naruto. Seeing the blonde's look of boredom the teacher walked up to the ninja wire and plucked a single strand of it. As the vibrations ran through the wire bells began to chime and when they reached the pole the wire was connected to they traveled onto the next wire and set the bells on that wire off. Before long every bell in the entire maze was ringing and producing quite the racket. And now a look of awe was on Naruto's face.

The alarm clock sounding snapped everybody out of their stupor.

"That alarm clock is set to go off every five minutes. In that time you must navigate this maze through any means necessary and stop it from sounding without ringing any of the bells, and if you ring one you ring them all so it will be obvious you failed. You have three attempts. If you cant do it then you fail. We will be going in alphabetical order so first up is Shino Aburame.

The coat wearing boy walked to the border of the wires and waited. As soon as the bell sounded he pointed his sleeves at the alarm clock and a swarm of bugs poured out of his sleeves and flew through the maze. In seconds they had cleared the maze and didn't just stop the alarm clock but brought it back to Shino. Turning to face Iruka with the clock in his hand Shino spoke in his usual emotionless voice.

"Did I pass sensei?" Iruka looked blankly at the alarm clock for a few seconds before the roaring laughter of Naruto snapped him out of it. Sighing and giving the bug user a flat look Iruka nodded.

"Yes Shino you did. Now, can you have them put the clock back?"

"Hai sensei." As if moving of its own accord the clock floated back to the stump and when it came to a stop a small swarm of black insects flew back into Shino's sleeves. Without another word the Aburame walked to the back of the group and waited.

And so the test began…

Kiba, failed first attempt on his own and sent in Akamaru for his second try and the puppy easily navigated the maze of wire.

Shikamaru, used a shadow hold to freeze the clock before it could ring.

Hinata, through use of her byakugan and natural flexibility easily waded through the wires.

Choji, failed first two attempts and finally managed to squeeze through the wires and stop the alarm with seconds to spare.

Sakura, failed her first attempt but passed on her second try.

Sasuke breezed through the obstacle and cleared it on his first attempt with plenty of time to spare.

Ino surprised everyone by pulling shocking acrobatics and spine cracking flexibility out of nowhere. After stepping under the first wire she launched herself up through the rest of the maze and into the air above the maze. That in and of itself was a feat. What she did next could be called a work of art. As she plummeted back down headed straight at the top of the wire mesh she flipped herself mid air so that she went head first into the wires. Twisting, contorting and bending at impossible angels Ino dodged every single wire in the maze on her way down till she landed right next to the alarm clock. She had a full four minutes and thirty minutes left.

Naruto, when his name was called all students went silent and watched him carefully. How was a blind boy going to navigate it? By pulling out a kunai and chucking it through the maze of wires to the alarm clock where it pierced the clock dead center and stopped it from sounding, for good.

"That a pass sensei?" Iruka slapped his forehead and sighed.

"Yes, that… technically counts." Naruto grinned that mischievous fox grin.

"Sweet! So now what?"

"Well for the remainder of the day we will be having spars to determine how battle fit you are." Turning to face the wire maze he had spent hours constructing Iruka sighed. "After I collapse all this."

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Two hours later and a lot of groping from Iruka and in place of a wire maze a sparing mat had been laid out. Mizuki who had been missing for the earlier test showed up with a scowl on his face and a clip board in his hand.

"Iruka calls a name, I beat the kid called into a pulp. How long you avoid being beaten is your score. No who is the first victim?" All the students gulped at the teachers vicious words and even nastier scowl. Iruka raised an eyebrow at Mizuki's mood but called out the first name none the less.

"Shino Aburame." The coat wearing boy walked onto the mat calmly not at all bothered by Mizuki's mood. "This is taijutsu only. Try and pin Mizuki or last three minutes or as long as possible. One minute is the minimum to pass. Begin." Mizuki did not wait for Shino to make the first move.

Instead the silver haired chunin charged full speed at Shino who actually showed emotion by looking scared. Instincts kicking in the kid bent around Mizuki's right jab and instead of attacking Shino leapt back a safe distance and dropped into a fighting stance. Mizuki didn't pause in the slightest and pressed his charge.

For just under two minutes that was how the match went. Mizuki would charge Shino and Shino would dodge, block, or just take the blow and roll with it. Before two minutes could roll around Mizuki landed a strong uppercut blow to Shino's chin that laid the youth flat out on his back.

"I yield!" Shino called out before Mizuki's drop kick could smash into his stomach. Iruka darted in and caught the attack before Shino was injured any further.

"He quit."

"The enemy doesn't always stop when their supposed to." Mizuki replied cooly. Iruka released Mizuki's leg and the silver haired chunin stepped back to the starting position. Taking in a deep breath to calm his nerves Iruka called out the next name.

And so the day went on. Multiple students were eliminated after putting up a pathetic resistance to Mizuki's brutal attacks.

Hinata Hyuuga narrowly managed to make it pass the one minute mark. Not because she lacked skill. But because she lacked the will to lash back at Mizuki despite the fact he was attacking her so violently. The one or two times she actually did strike back she landed pin point accurate blows but lacked the killer intent to fully carry them out. So instead of closing off Mizuki's chakra points she merely slowed his flow of chakra down. And in a taijutsu match that did next to nothing for her.

Kiba passed with flying colors. Mizuki's brutal attacks were nothing new to the clan heir, his mom had been training him ever since he had started ninja training and if there was one thing Tsume Inuzuka was good at it was being vicious. So Kiba wasn't intimidated by Mizuki and managed to use his puppy Akamaru to actually land a few light blows to Mizuki. But sadly for Kiba after the two minute mark Mizuki stepped it up even further and pummeled Kiba into the ground. _Hard_.

Choji Akimichi passed because his family was built for heavy combat and this was nothing new to the kid. Instead of moving about to avoid the blows Choji merely took the pounding and launched counter attacks every chance he got. When he blocked a left uppercut with his right arm Choji launched his own left hook at Mizuki's face. None of his counter attacks landed. He was fighting a chunin. The odds of a academy students, even a clan heir, beating a chunin was slim to none. But he made it way past two minutes.

Shikamaru made it to one minute exactly and then gave up. Each and every time Mizuki would attack him Shikamaru would wait until the perfect moment and then move out of the way. Never once did he strike back. He simply survived until the required time and then quit.

Ino Yamanaka had the hardest time of the famous Ino-Shika-Cho trio of her generation. She had neither Choji's physical durability to take the beating nor did she have Shikamaru's intellect to predict Mizuki's moves. All she had was the academy style. And a pitiful version of it at that. After walking off the mat after only one minute and fifteen minutes she swore she would get better. And a certain blonde heard it. So as Sakura Haruno was called up Naruto walked over to a down trodden Ino who was slumped up against a tree with her head down.

"You suck." Ino snapped her head up to glare at the fool who dared insult her only to see a grinning blonde. She narrowed her eyes even further but Naruto just kept grinning at her. It took Ino a good three seconds of glaring at the boy to realize he couldn't see her. Huffing at his trick she turned away from him and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Go screw yourself." Naruto chuckled and flopped down beside her. Just close enough to touch her arms with his own. Unbeknownst to the two blondes Kiba focused on their conversation when he saw them sitting so close together.

"No no I'm serious you really do suck. Your slow, your reaction time is pathetic at best, the few punches you made were weak as a two year old and you cant take a punch."

"And how do you know all this? You're a drop out degenerate who couldn't even pass the academy the last two years! So shut it!" Ino snapped at the blonde boy sitting next to her. She didn't hear it but Naruto didn't miss the snicker Kiba made. Ignoring both Kiba's snicker and Ino's words Naruto continued.

"Well then shall we make a wager?"

"What kind of wager?"

"If I can not just last the three minutes but beat Mizuki you have to agree to train with me for the rest of the year." Ino snorted.

"You beat him? Ha! Ya that will be the day. So what do I get when I win?"

"Whatever you want." Naruto replied casually.

"Anything?"

"Anything you ask for. But remember what happens if I win." The endless possibilities of getting him to do _anything_ ran rampant through Ino's mind. "Better decide quick, only Sasuke is left before I go up." Ino bit her lip nervously. She was almost certain she could win and having him do anything would be so nice, but that tiny little doubt in the back of her mind nagged at her. Then again, what could be so bad about spending more time with the handsome blonde boy who kept flirting with her? Seeing it as a win/win situation Ino shrugged.

"Alright. Your on whiskers, and remember you said anything." Naruto chuckled and that familiar fox grin spread across his face.

"Don't worry Ino-chan, I never break a promise. Now about our training schedule, how does six each day sound?"

"Six?" Ino asked incredulously thinking that the blonde was referring to six in the afternoon. "That's way to late!" Naruto sighed and drooped his head.

"Great another one. You sound like a kid I knew last year." Naruto said thinking of a certain spandex wearing, caterpillar for eyebrows kid whose talking volume was permanently stuck on screaming. "But you agreed and I get to pick the time so six it is. Now if you don't mind I have to go open a can of whoop-ass on Mizuki-sensei." Naruto stood up and performed an elegant bow right as his name was called by Iruka. As he straightened out he put extra force into it and launched himself into a back flip over the entire crowd that brought him right to the starting position on the mat. And once again Kiba and Ino wondered how he could do that without seeing.

"Yo!" Naruto cheered as he landed on the mat. Mizuki narrowed his eyes at the demon container and tensed to charge. "Wait! Before Mizuki goes ape-shit crazy on me I got a question." Mizuki tried not to snarl at the kid but failed.

"What is it?" The silver haired chunin growled out.

"Can I use a sword in this?" That actually gave the aggravated teacher a moment of pause to consider the question.

"Sure, it technically counts as being a part of your taijutsu. Plus I don't see a sword on your broke as…" Mizuki trailed off as he saw Naruto's right palm begin to glow blue. In a blue flash of light Naruto was left holding a three foot long sword, the blade was covered in white bandages while the handle was covered in black bandages. The sword had no hand guard and was pointing towards the ground limply in Naruto's right hand.

"Oh lookey there! Looks like my broke self does have a sword." Naruto sneered back at Mizuki. That snapped the silver haired chunin out of the shock of seeing a sword materialize in Naruto's hands.

"Start the match Iruka." Iruka looked between the two and knew, just _knew_, that letting this continue was a bad idea.

"Go ahead Iruka-sensei." Sighing and knowing he was going to regret it later Iruka started the match none the less.

"Begin." All the students who had already fought Mizuki and were still sore from the ordeal were suddenly aware of just how much Mizuki had been holding back. The silver haired chunin vanished in a burst of speed and reappeared behind Naruto with a kick aimed at the blonde's head. Naruto whirled his sword around in his hand and at the same time turned himself around so that he was facing Mizuki's kick. Kick met sword. Naruto grinned at the shocked teacher.

Pushing off Mizuki's leg Naruto leapt away in a quick back flip and as soon as his toes touched the ground he launched himself back at Mizuki with the sword slashing upwards. Mizuki turned with the momentum Naruto had given him and was just putting his foot back on the ground when he saw Naruto coming back at him. Stepping back again in order to avoid the slash Mizuki narrowly avoided losing his nose. Naruto came to a sudden halt directly in front of Mizuki and reversed the direction of the swords slash aiming to cut through his chest.

Mizuki's eyes widened even further at Naruto's relentless assault. Dodging to the right to avoid the next slash Mizuki quickly stepped back in and threw a punch at Naruto's midriff. Naruto felt the blow coming and sucked his sword back into its seal freeing up his right hand. Before Mizuki's fist could connect with his stomach Naruto managed to grab Mizuki by the wrist with both hands. Spinning around without losing his grip on Mizuki's wrist Naruto tossed the teacher over his shoulder. Before Mizuki even hit the mat Naruto unsealed his sword again and chased after the air borne ninja.

Mizuki new the follow up attack was coming and rolled mid air and pulled out a pair of kunai as he did so. When Naruto slashed down at his chest Mizuki crossed the kunai in front of him to block the swords arc of motion. He never expected the sword to pass through the kunai like they weren't even there. So shocked was Mizuki that he didn't even react when Naruto pressed the sword up against Mizuki's neck.

Naruto had drained the chakra out of the blade as it came in contact with Mizuki's skin for two reasons. One so the cruel teacher didn't figure out his trick. And two so that he didn't accidentally decapitate the teacher. Killing your teacher on the first day of class would probably look bad on a permanent record.

"Time!" Iruka called out. Not a soul made a sound till Naruto chuckled.

"I won Ino-chan." In the back of the crowd Ino sat staring unbelievingly as Naruto walked away from the still stunned Mizuki and towards her. When he reached her he grinned down at her. "So it looks like I'll be seeing a good bit more of you this year." Ino's jaw finally started to work as her mind started to reboot.

"H-h-how did you… T-that was…"

"That was exactly what I told you would happen. Now if you'll excuse me I must prepare for our training session tomorrow." With that Naruto sealed his sword back into his hand as he walked away from the shocked class. Instead of walking out of the school yard like they all expected Naruto turned and walked behind a tree.

He never came out the other side. When Kiba went to investigate he saw that the blonde was no where to be seen and his scent simply vanished at the tree.

8888

**Six am The next morning**

Naruto sniffed the air twice to be certain he was in the right location. And he was certain. According to the mental map of Konoha he had in his mind he was standing in front of the building right next to the nice lady's flower shop. According to his sense of smell the source of that addicting scent he had come to associate as Ino's scent was coming from the other side of the door he was standing in front of. Sucking in a deep breath he knocked firmly three times.

His enhanced senses of hearing picked up on the sounds of someone with a much heavier foot step than Ino's marching towards the door. When he felt the door be jerked and heard a deep voice that most certainly did not belong to Ino speak he knew he was screwed.

"What do you want?" The mysterious voice asked. Naruto knowing he was already up to his neck decided things couldn't get any worse.

"I'm here to pick up Ino-chan for …" The air suddenly got cold and everything went silent.

"What do you want with my daughter." The voice asked in a tone Naruto knew promised untold amounts of pain if he didn't answer correctly.

'_Aw shit.'_


	6. Chapter 6

***Author pokes head out of hole* Hello! *Ducks back into hole to avoid fans throwing rotten tomatoes. Author sticks out white flag.* I know it's been ages since I last updated this fic but some slack please! I did say this story would have a choppy update speed, plus college is hell on my writing time.**

**Kat-the-helping-demon: Sigh its not going well sadly, feel free to help out if you wish.**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer, I do not in any way, shape or form own anything of Naruto. But neither do you. Ain't it grand?<strong>

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><p><strong>No plot to steal Naruto this week, instead enjoy an extra long chapter.<strong>

**Impure Perfection**

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><p><strong>Meet The Teacher<strong>

"Ino dear." Izumi called out gently as she walked into her daughter's bedroom. In the bedroom was a queen sized bed, in the middle of that bed was a huge pile of covers wrapped around someone who was just coming into the realm of consciousness. "You might want to wake up."

Out popped the blonde hair of head that was Ino Yamanaka at six in the morning. The girl yawned and rubbed the sleep out of her right eye while the left eye looked at her mom.

"Mmm? Why?" Taking a quick glance at the clock on the nightstand next to her bed she saw the time and was even more confused. "What on earth could be going on at six in the morning?"

"Well, there is this rather peculiar blonde haired boy down stairs being interrogated by your father. The boy claims that you agreed to train with him today."

"Huh? I never..." Ino trailed off as several things began to click into place in her just awakening mind. It was six. Blonde haired boy. Agreed to train. At last one word popped into her mind and popped out of her mouth in a shout. "Naruto!" Throwing off her sheets Ino jumped out of bed and started to get ready while at the same time rushing her mom out the door. "Mom! You go stop dad from erasing Naruto's memory of the last five years, or making him think he is a girl... or any of that mind stuff dad does!"

"Alright alright dear." Laughing to herself Izumi shut the door behind her and walked back down the stairs to 'protect' the boy now known as Naruto. The sight she walked in on was quite amusing. Naruto was sitting on the couch looking directly at Inoichi. Inoichi was standing on the other side of the room looking right back at Naruto. Neither one said a word.

"How old are you?" Inoichi asked suddenly.

"Fifteen." Naruto replied without missing a beat. He knew Izumi was there, her scent was almost as distinctive as Ino's. Speaking of his fellow blonde, he heard and felt the girl rushing about in the room above his head and it was very hard not to laugh at the situation. _'I should have known she thought I meant six in the afternoon.'_

"How do you know my daughter?" Inoichi asked firing another question at the boy who had yet to flinch at his questions.

"We are in the same class in the academy."

_'Not for long you aren't.' _Inoichi thought to himself. "Why are you, a supposed fifteen year old, in the same class as my thirteen year old daughter?"

"Because I failed the graduation exam two years running."

"And you think you are going to teach my daughter?" Inoichi asked in a mocking tone, and for the first time that morning he saw emotion on the younger blonde's face. Though it wasn't the fear or humiliation Inoichi had been expecting.

"Your old enough to know, so you tell me why I didn't know what I was supposed to know in the academy." Naruto said and he knew from the way Inoichi shifted his weight that the elder blonde knew he had made a mistake. "I spent the summer getting remedial training from a very knowledgeable dog. Your daughter got her ass handed to her by Mizuki-sensei yesterday. I managed to beat Mizuki-sensei. Your daughter was kind to me in the ramen stand, I'm trying to be nice to her and help her out in return."

"Are you saying I can't teach her myself?"

"I'm saying I saw her get laid out in under two minutes and offered to help."

Inoichi opened his mouth to continue the banter when Izumi stepped in and spoke up instead.

"Well it's sweet of you to help out." Seeing as the boy couldn't see Izumi sent a warning look at her husband when he opened his mouth to protest. Sitting down Izumi looked back at Naruto and continued to speak. "What exactly are you going to teach her?"

"Mmm well I don't know what your clan does and does not teach so I'm just gonna help her with basics. Make her faster, stronger and maybe improve chakra control. Though her chakra control is probably already way better than mine will ever be so I'll probably just do stamina instead."

Izumi saw the look of approval on Inoichi's face and smiled.

"Well that sounds good..." She paused when Naruto got up off the couch. "Something wrong?"

"Oh no, but here comes Ino-chan and she seems to be in a rush."

Izumi rolled her eyes. _'And here we go again.'_ She thought before Inoichi even opened his mouth.

"Now see here you! Why are you calling my little girl 'chan'? And how do you know she is in a..." He stopped when Ino dashed into the room, grabbed Naruto by the hand and continued on out the door. Naruto waved at Inoichi even as Ino dragged him out the door. "That brat."

"Now now dear, he is just trying to help Ino out. And you did say she needed to work on all the things he said he was gonna teach her."

"Ya but..." His argument fell flat and he sighed to himself. Izumi walked out of the room and into the kitchen to start on breakfast. "I wonder if the hokage would allow me to change which class Ino is in?"

8888

"You never specified six in the morning!" Ino fussed at Naruto who was walking nonchalantly alongside her.

"Ma ma calm down. We are still gonna get to train a bit today, even though you did take forever to get ready." Naruto teased knowing she would react.

"I took forever?" Ino asked incredulously. "Excuse me! Who do you think you are?"

"I think I'm the guy who is about to leave you in the dust." Naruto said with a devilish smirk before taking off down the street at a sprint.

Ino blinked once at the sudden change of pace before tearing down the street after the blonde and black blur ahead of her.

"Get back here you!"

Neither of the two noticed the Dog masked ANBU who had been watching them the entire time. And neither of the two noticed as the ANBU continued to follow them all the way out to training ground seven. _'Figures he would bring her out here.'_ Dog thought to himself as he silently observed the two from the cover of the trees.

Ino finally caught up to Naruto who was standing in the middle of some random field. And where Naruto was looking no worse for wear from the impromptu marathon, Ino was panting for breath and holding her side. She glared at the still grinning boy.

"You jerk."

"Maybe." Naruto said with a shrug. "Oi, you wear ninja sandals don't you?"

Ino blinked at the question. This kid was just full of surprises.

"Um, yes. Why?"

"Well if you were wearing some complicated shoes it would be harder for me to do what I wanted to do this morning."

"And that would be?"

"To put some seals on you. See one of the best things I know of to make you stronger and faster is to wear several weight seals. And since I know you are wearing something on your arms I can put the seals on that as well."

"Your gonna put seals on my elbow warmers?"

"Yep!" Naruto said. Then paused when he realized she might not want to walk around with a seal on her arm. "If you want I can make the seal vanish after I draw it." He heard her hum to herself and figured she was thinking. While she was thinking he reached into one of the many side pockets on the inside of his coat. He pulled out a jar of sealing ink already infused with his blood and chakra, he also pulled out a paint brush with a fine tip designed for drawing smaller seals.

"Na I don't mind the seals being seen, that might actually look cool. Though does it come in different colors?"

"Hmmm..." Naruto knew he only had black ink on him at the moment. But. He also knew that Rhino-sensei had a dozen different shades of purple in his shop. "Sure! Just give me a moment." Setting the ink down and then placing the brush on top of the jar Naruto formed a hand seal Ino had never seen before. In a burst of smoke a clone popped into existence. "Head over to Rhino-sensei's and grab a jar of purple." The clone saluted and dashed off into the woods.

Ino wondered how a clone could grab something, she was about to ask about that when she saw the clone vanish into the shadows. Literally. It wasn't like when her father used the shadows to hide in and became nearly invisible, the clone had totally vanished from sight in the blink of an eye.

"What happened to the clone?"

"Huh?" Naruto asked confused. He knew the clone hadn't been dispersed so then what was she talking about? "You mean where did it go?"

"Ya! It just suddenly vanished."

"It's called Shadow Step and it's a family jutsu." He could tell from the sudden stillness in her that she was shocked.

"But..." Ino bit her tongue from finishing her sentence. It was rude to ask if someone was an orphan or not. Thankfully for her she didn't have to ask.

"Ya I know I'm an orphan but I'm also the only Uzumaki in Konoha, and since I created it that means that it is technically a clan technique. Now while we wait on the clone to come back can I draw the seals on your shoes? No one will see them so black won't matter will it?"

"Na that's fine." As Ino watched Naruto unscrew the ink, dip the brush in the ink and then pick her foot up to start drawing the seal a question popped into her mind. "Say, if you failed the academy twice then where did you learn all this stuff, the sword fighting, the sealing and the Shadow Step thing."

"Well," Naruto started as he continued working on the seal on her left foot. "I created the Shadow Step all on my own so I didn't learn that from anywhere. As for the rest of the stuff well I saw this poor and pathetic looking puppy dog on the side of the road and I took sympathy on the poor thing and gave it a home and food. Turns out it was an abandoned ninja dog, so when it was feeling better it decided to pay me back by teaching me all this stuff."

"Mmhmm." Ino got out while looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"Yep! You would be amazed at what sort of wild life you can find out here." Naruto said trying to keep the grin off his face. It was a pretty solid story. There were ninja dogs in Konoha, they did know how to fight and they could be abandoned. The more truth there is in a lie the easier someone will take it.

"Ya. Your good and all whiskers, but you need a great deal more practice if you wish to defeat a master of Bullshit such as myself." Naruto froze and only the training from Rhino stopped him from messing up the seal. "Since you said a dog so often I'm going to guess it was an ANBU that trained you. Since you said 'took sympathy on it' I'm guessing the ANBU saw you training and decided to help you out."

Ino grinned at seeing his face solid white and looking up at her in shock. Giggling she reached down and patted his head. "Don't worry it was a nice try, for a beginner."

For nearly a solid minute Naruto said nothing. Then he shook his head and looked back down at the seal he was drawing on her shoe. Before he could think of a intelligent remark to fire back at her the clone he sent to fetch the ink popped out of Ino's shadow nearly scaring the girl to death. Her jerking in fear almost made Naruto to mess up the seal but luckily his iron grip on her foot held her in place long enough for him to put the final stroke on the seal.

"Hold still you!"

"Your clone scared me! How am I supposed to react when a clone pops out of my shadow?"

When Naruto didn't have answer he just turned to glare at his clone.

"Did you at least get the ink?"

The clone didn't reply immediately which confused Naruto who couldn't see the clone. Ino on the other hand saw the clone trying to fight down a blush and couldn't help but grin.

"What did the Rhino guy say that has you so flustered? Hmm?"

The clone blushed again and quickly set down the jars it was holding in its arms before dispelling in a puff of smoke. As soon as it did Naruto cried out and fell back on his butt. _'The hell is that pervert thinking saying that stuff? As if I would do such a thing!'_ Hearing Ino giggling Naruto cleared his throat and sat back up.

"Anyways, while you pick out an ink color let me activate the seal and start working on the other one." Picking up Ino's foot once more Naruto channeled a miniscule amount of chakra into the seal until he felt it activate and then stopped immediately after that. As soon as that was done he set her foot down and heard her bend down to pick up one of the jars the clone had set down. For once he was glad his clones had acted without his commands and gotten more than one jar. Would have been bad if the clone had only gotten one color and Ino hated the color.

"Your clone has good taste." Ino said more to kill the silence than to actually start a conversation. Ever since the boy had started working on the next seal they had fallen into a silence.

"Meh, I'm sure Rhino-sensei had more to do with that than the clone did. Besides, why purple? I'm guessing you wear a lot of it?"

"Of course I wear a lot of it! Purple is the best color is there!" Ino declared as if he was foolish not to know it.

"Are you kidding me? Purple?" Naruto asked incredulously. "Purple is nothing compared to the wonder that is orange!"

"Orange? You mean that disgusting mix of red and yellow that is good for nothing aside from blinding others with its hideousness?"

"How dare you slander the good name of the color orange! I'll have you know orange is the best color kami ever created."

"Puh-lease!"

"If not then why is the sunset _and_ sunrise orange? Hmmm? Why would both be such a great color if it wasn't a good color?"

"That's just a coincidence! The sunrise is purple before it's orange so technically purple is better." Ino fired back with a triumphant grin on her face. She heard Naruto growl at her and laughed. "Ha! I win."

"Whatever, hold still you I have to activate this." Channeling his chakra into the seal once again he couldn't keep the grin off his face. It felt so nice to be able to talk to someone his own age like this. "Now for the arms, where is the ink you want me to use?"

Ino handed him the jar and once again the two started up with small talk. The silence that had been there before was gone, with both of them being boisterous people it was bound that they would click sooner or later. Still watching from the shadow of the trees Dog grinned beneath his mask. Even from this distance he could tell that Naruto was enjoying every minute of it. And from the grin on Ino's face Dog would have to wager the girl was enjoying it just as much as Naruto was.

Figuring that it was time to go Dog vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto had just finished activating the last seal when he felt the tiny tingle on the edge of his senses that he had come to associate with his sensei coming and going via the use of shushin. And that disturbed him greatly. He knew from the way the chakra lingered that Dog had been leaving which meant Dog had seen the entire thing. And that meant Naruto could be certain that the next time they met Dog was going to tease him endlessly about it.

Ino noticed how Naruto suddenly spaced out and snapped her fingers to gain his attention.

"Oi, whats the matter."

"Nothing." Naruto let out a sigh and shook his head to rid the thoughts of how Dog would torment him later. "Just a puppy dog that needs to stop being lazy." Hearing Ino giggle he cocked his head to one side. "What's so funny?"

"Your sensei was watching wasn't he?" Again seeing the utterly flabbergasted look on Naruto's face Ino couldn't help but laugh. "I told you Whiskers, your good but no where near as good as me."

"Ya ya, I wasn't even trying. Now let me explain the seals cause they have two functions."

"You mean they don't just get heavy when I put chakra in them?"

"Well sort of. See they get heavier because they convert chakra into weight and then store that weight. How much weight they convert it into depends on how I draw the seal, I drew it so that it would work at it's lowest setting. But since the seal stores chakra when you pull your chakra out of the seal to remove the weights you get your chakra back. So if your fighting and need a speed boost and take the weight off not only will you get faster but you'll get some chakra back. Meaning you will get a sudden boost in speed and be refreshed for battle while your opponent doesn't."

Ino looked down at the seals on her arms in new found awe.  
>"They do all that? Woah, so then how do I make them get heavier?"<p>

"Simple. Push chakra into them until they are as heavy as you want them to be. I'd suggest you start out at ten pounds in each seal. Go ahead and push chakra into them and I'll tell you when to stop."

Ino nodded and did as she was told. Putting her hands in the ram seal she to channel chakra better she began to push chakra into the seals on her elbow warmers. After pumping chakra into the seals for a minute she stopped.

"Is that enough?"

Instead of answering Naruto stepped forward and touched a finger to the seal.

"Your only at six pounds in these seals." Ino blushed at that. She knew her chakra reserves were small but to that extent was just embarrassing. Sensing the girl heating up and figuring she was embarrassed Naruto cleared his throat. "Um, do you want help so you have chakra left for class?"

"Yes please." Ino quipped out in a small voice.

"Alright but only on one condition." His voice had lost that playful tone she had always heard in it, now it was deadly serious and it hammered home just how serious she should take this. "You never take all the chakra out of all the seals at one time. My chakra is different than yours, if you took that much of my chakra in with how small your reserves are it might hurt you. So you think you can remember that?"

"Ya, never take all the chakra out of all the seals in one shot. Right?"

"Right. Now hold still while I fill these up."

Ino watched as Naruto filled up all four seals in under thirty seconds. She had pushed a good bit of her chakra into two seals for nearly a minute and gotten no where. Yet in under half that time he finished the two she had started and filled up two more? How much larger were his reserves than hers? Her thoughts were cut short as she felt the added forty pounds weight down on her. Trying to lift her arms Ino groaned.

"How am I supposed to move around in these things? This is crazy!" She heard Naruto laugh as she tried to move about with the added weight and she glared at him. Only to realize it did nothing to a blindfolded boy. "Oh yeah this is real funny. I ought to make you carry me to school for this."

"Ha-ha fat chance of that working out. I'm not your carriage!"

A devious smile spread across Ino's face as she flopped down in the grass. Faking a sob she spoke in a defeated and helpless tone that would tug at even the most cold of hearts.

"Fine. Leave me out here all by my lonesome while I can't move, I'm sure no one will take advantage of a poor helpless little girl." She saw the gears in Naruto's head start to turn, grin widening she continued with her act. "And I'm certain my daddy would just be _thrilled _that you left his precious little girl out in the middle of some abandoned field after you dragged me out of bed at such an early hour. I mean he would _never_ use his mind jutsu on you for doing such a thing. And I'm certain mom would _never_..."

"Alright alright! I give!" Naruto shouted finally, not wanting to even know what the flower lady would do if he hurt her daughter. Hearing Ino squeal in delight at her victory he tried to spin it so that he won. Sadly he had no idea how so he just scooped her up in his arms, and that was when it hit him.

Ino saw the foxy smirk on Naruto's lips and before she could react to his change of moods Naruto had tossed her up on his shoulders so that she was sitting on his shoulders with her legs on either side of his head.

"AH! You baka! I'm in a skirt!" He just laughed and started to walk to town.

"Ah well that such a shame, I can't see anything obviously so as long as you dont spread your legs you'll be fine. Besides your the one that wanted to be carried so no complaining." She flicked the top of his head.

"Baka."  
>"Maybe, but since I won what does that make you?" He let out another laugh as she launched another remark back at him. And thus the entire way back to class the two were trading remarks and bickering with one another.<p>

8888

Sakura sat in class rubbing the bruise on her arm from yesterday's spar with Mizuki. Class was going to start any minute now and two people she was looking for were still missing from class. Ino, whom Sakura wanted to watch to see how the blonde reacted. And the new boy so that she could start her new plan to gain Sasuke's attention. Hearing a commotion coming down the halls and knowing that only Ino would be daring enough to make that much noise Sakura pulled out a book and tried not to look too interested in Ino's entrance.

"You best duck Ino-chan."

"Put me down you baka!"

"But I wouldn't want to anger your dad by leaving his poor little girl stranded out in the hall, therefore I simply must escort you to your seat. So I suggest you duck."

By now the entire class was looking at the door. Everyone already knew who was coming in but none of them could make sense of the strange conversation the two blondes were having. At least until the two causing the commotion entered into the room. At first it looked like some sort of fusion of black, purple and blonde then Ino sat back up to glare at Naruto whose shoulders she was still sitting on.

Without giving Ino time to say anything Naruto walked to the same seats they had been at the day before. "We have reached our destination my lady." Naruto said in an overly formal tone Before turning around and kneeling so as to set Ino directly down on the desk without jarring her.

Ino noticed how the entire class was watching them. Figuring it was pointless to fight it Ino spoke in a tone matching Naruto's.

"Very good, now we need breakfast." Ino saw the foxy smirk on Naruto's face pop up for a second before it vanished and he replaced it with one more befitting of a butler.

"I figured the lady might want breakfast, as such I had a clone bring us the finest food in all of Konoha." As if called a clone popped out of the shadows near the window carrying two cartons of Ichiraku's ramen. Naruto hopped up and over Ino to land in the middle seat, before he sat down however he pulled Ino's chair out for her. "Your breakfast has arrived my lady."

"Very well." Ino said, still speaking in her formal tone. Moving as smooth as a cat she slid off the desk and sat down in the chair Naruto had pulled out for her. Once the two blondes were both sitting they took a glance at one another before both burst out laughing.

The entire class just watched them in a mix of stupefied confusion and morbid fascination.

And this was the scene Iruka walked into the room to see. The entire class was deathly silent and watching as Naruto and Ino ate a breakfast of ramen. Deciding it be best not to question the situation Iruka cleared his throat to catch their attention before speaking.

"Good morning class. We are going to have one final test this morning to see whether or not you are qualified to be a ninja, if you pass then when we come back you will meet a one of the new teachers. And she will give you a final….exam." A boy in the third row on the left raised his hand. "Ah yes, Kouta?"

"Um excuse me Iruka-sensei but where is Mizuki-sensei?" The entire class, save for Naruto, saw how Iruka became a sickly shade of green for a moment before shaking his head of whatever had been on the instructor's mind.

"Mizuki." Iruka paused and swallowed the lump in his throat. He wanted to lie to them. He didn't want to tell the kids the truth to save his friend's dignity. But he had to. The Hokage had ordered him to tell the students the truth. No more protecting them from the harsh truths of life the Hokage had said. "Mizuki has regretfully been found guilty of treason." Gasp went up all over the room. "After a certain ANBU watched the sparing session yesterday Mizuki was placed under watch, turns out he has been giving away information on Konoha to anyone looking for it for months."

In the back row of the class Naruto tuned out the rest of what Iruka said. _'A certain ANBU? Dog must have been watching yesterday and seen how Mizuki was acting. Though why was he watching? __Summers over shouldn't he be back to whatever it is ANBU normally do?'_ Finding no answer the blonde listened in to the rest of Iruka's lecture.

"And so it will just be me from now on, along with the other teachers we have lined up to help out throughout the year. Now let's head outside for the final test." The entire class collectively stood up and slowly began to filter out of the room.

In the back of the academy was a mini training ground, just big enough for the entire class to move about in but still be small enough that one or two instructors could watch over all the students to ensure no one got seriously harmed. The training ground consisted of a few smaller bushes gathered in the far back left corner with a small tree in the middle of the bushes. In the middle of the training ground was a wide open range about twice the size of the classroom they had just come from. Around the rest of the training ground were occasional bushes scattered about at random intervals.

However most of the students noticed the new addition to the training ground.

Some one had drawn a circle around the training ground with white chalk.

"The final test is a series of group spars. The first spar will be between all boys in the class, the second will be between the girls in the class. The rules are simple, if you run out of chakra or can't fight any more, get knocked out or get knocked out of the circle you are disqualified. If you are disqualified please go home and either try again next year or give up being a ninja. Any and all tactics may be used, meaning genjutsu, ninjutsu or any other tricks you may wish to use are allowed. The only thing not allowed is a lethal attack. The match will last a total of ten minutes. Understood?" When all nodded Iruka continued. "Alright then, all guys enter the circle. You have until the count of ten to prepare yourself. One..."

As soon as he started counting everyone rushed into the training ground. Shikamaru lazily waltzed over to the tree and leaned up against it, out of common sense everyone but Shino avoided that area. The bug user leapt up into the tree and surrounded himself with his clan's special insects, he knew Shikamaru wouldn't attack him so he left the shadow user alone. "Three..." Iruka called out. The more close combat favoring kids such as Kiba and Choji boldly stood out in the middle of the clearing, neither facing the other out of silent respect not choosing to fight the other. "Five..." The other kids spread themselves out in the clearing as best they could so to avoid those they feared while staying close to those they thought they could beat. "Seven..." Naruto had taken three steps into the circle and then stopped, allowing his chakra to flow out scaring the others from standing right next to him. "Nine..." Sasuke stood on the opposite side of the training ground from Naruto, and just as the Uzumaki had done Sasuke was using his chakra to keep others from crowding around him.

"Ten!" Iruka shouted and immediately several launched into action, Naruto summoned his sword, Sasuke pulled out two kunai and crouched down, Kiba and Choji both tensed for battle, Shikamaru ran through hand seals and Shino let his bugs move out from the tree. "Begin!"

Naruto stood just on the edge of the circle with his sword slung over his shoulder waiting for anyone to approach him. He didn't have to wait long. Two classmates had decided to team up on him apparently and were trying to sneak up on him, and for academy students they were doing good. Right up until the point where one kid leapt at Naruto. As soon as the kid launched himself into the air and was commited to a single path of motion Naruto shot forward. Naruto ducked under the flying kick the kid had thrown and turned around using the blunt end of his sword to shove the kid out of the circle.

The second kid attacked as soon as Naruto's back was turned to him. Running forward and aiming to deliver a series of jabs at Naruto's back the kid was shocked out of his mind when Naruto suddenly vanished. It wasn't until he felt a foot being pressed into his back that he realized Naruto had moved behind him some how. As Naruto heard the kid fall outside of the circle he grinned. Using the shadow of the first kid to vanish Naruto had popped back out of the second kid's shadow. But time to contemplate was later, now time to toss more brats out of the ring.

Shikamaru watched from his seat on the ground as three kids tried to figure out how to get at him. They knew he did _something_ with shadows. What he did they didn't know but they did know he did something. So they wanted to avoid the shadows at all cost. Another fact they didn't know was that they were already being drained of chakra by Shino's bugs. Sighing at the effort this was gonna take Shikamaru ran through hand seals at a slow and steady pace so as to not attract the boy's attention. Right as he finished the last one the boy on the right reached for his kunai holster, only for his hand to freeze mid way.

"Could you please hurry your bugs? I can only hold them for a minute at most." Shikamaru said his usual lazy tone as he looked up in the tree to see Shino looking back down at him.

"I cannnot. I can only carry a very limited number up Kikkai bugs. They are already spread thin between those three."

"Fine, then I guess we hope they don't have much chakra." Shikamaru said with another sigh as he sat down to conserve chakra, watching with slight amusement as the three other boys sat down as well.

Iruka watched the two geniuses work with a grin on his face. He had never said anything about team work, the fact they were of their own accord linking up in groups was a good thing. And it was exactly what the Hokage's new adviser had said would happen. So just as the bandage wearing stranger had said Iruka was writing down who was working with who for future team formation possibilities. A loud crash caught Iruka's attention causing him to look up to see what the noise was.

In the middle of the training ground the sparring contest had turned into an all out brawl, at least seven different kids were in close quarters combat punching and kicking at whatever they could. Even in the midst of the crazy brawl two stood out above the rest Choji and Kiba. Choji stood out in that no matter how many punches or which way the punches were coming at him he could always counter, and his counters were strong enough to put some dangerously close to going out of bounds. On the other hand Kiba stood out for his decisive and moving through the fight, he avoided most of the blows aimed at him and all blows that were wide area attacks. While his blows were no where near as hard as Choji's they were ten times more precise and one particularly vicious upper cut knocked a boy out.

"**Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu" **Upon hearing that Iruka prepared to act and looked to see Sasuke exhale a scorching hot ball of flames at the mass of kids in the middle of the training ground. However before Iruka even made a move to help the kids Naruto left the little squabble he had been in and put himself between the mass of guys and the oncoming fire ball.

"**Wind Style: Great Breakthrough Jutsu" **Naruto called out as he launched a compressed ball of air at Sasuke's fireball, with the ball of wind being roughly twice the size of the ball of fire. When the two attacks clashed they simply pressed up against one another for a moment, pushing back and forth in a struggle for dominance. Finally the two sides gave out and collapsed in on each other resulting in a massive explosion. Without waiting Naruto sucked in another breath and without the use of hand seals unleashed another blast of wind. The second blast of wind blew away the smoke from the explosion only to reveal that Sasuke had moved. While a shock to those who were watching Naruto knew the Uchiha had moved.

Sasuke watched the blonde fool waste his time blowing away the smoke screen the explsion had left and grinned to himself._ 'Perfect.'_ He was hiding in some bushes to the right of where he had been standing and as soon as Naruto committed to blowing the smoke screen away Sasuke dashed out of the bushes and prepared to shove a kunai into the side of Naruto's head. To Sasuke's utter horror the blonde in front of him vanished without so much as a trace, seeing a flash of blonde to his left Sasuke turned to see his target had some how moved to the shadow underneath the smoke that had been moved to the edge of the circle.

Growling at being out smarted Sasuke was about to charge again when a shout rang out.

"Time! Everyone stop!" Sure enough as soon as Iruka had called the time all stopped their fighting. As those who had been disqualified and those who had passed were being separated Iruka wrote it down. Aside from clan heads and Naruto only five other guys had managed to pass. Alright, next up is the girls match. All ladies please step into the training ground, begin on the count of ten. One..."

Ino went to walk into the training ground when Naruto grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"Oi Ino-chan, remember the weights. Dont worry about throwing hard punches, just worry about controlling them." When she nodded he let her go with a final few words. "Good luck." Ino only had three seconds to get in place but she was still glad he had stopped her. Ino placed herself just inside the circle a good distance from the other girls. Looking around she saw that most of the other girls had taken up similar positions, including Sakura. Hinata was the only girl who had stepped out into the middle of the training ground.

"Ten." Iruka called and watched as the only girls who did anything were Ino, Sakura and Hinata. The pale eyed clan head activated her bloodline and dropped into the low stance which her family was both famous and infamous for. Sakura and Ino both pulled out a kunai and dropped into the academy style, though for some reason Ino's style seemed a bit sloppier than it usually was. "Begin!" The girls shuffled around the field a bit, none of them really in a rush to fight one another. After almost a full minute of nothing more than a few skirmishes Naruto finally lost his patience, he was just about to start shouting when Ino launched into motion.

She had been keeping an eye on one particular girl who always shifted closer back to the edge every time a different girl shifted her weight. Waiting until the girl was close enough to the edge Ino shot forward. The girl let out a gasp of shock but was totally unprepared for Ino jumping headfirst at her. The Yamanaka jumped up at the girl aiming to go over her and roll so as to strike at her back, however not fully countering the extra forty pounds she was aimed to low. So improvising she placed both hands on the girl's shoulders and somersaulted over her, transfering her momentum into the girl and throwing her out of the circle. Twirling around and deciding to forgo precise striking Ino sought out another target. Her platinum blue eyes settled on a short haired girl hiding in a bush nearby.

Sakura had seen Ino take the first girl out and rush at a second when Sakura decided to follow Ino's lead and be aggressive. Apparently that was the signal that play time was over as most of the other girls started to fight as well. Though none fought as violently as the guys had or as seriously as the guys had. Only one or two girls were thrown out, most of the girls disqualified were done so because they were knocked unconscious. And most of that was done courtesy of one Hinata Hyuuga.

Standing tall in the middle of the training ground Hinata had stood perfectly still the entire time the other girls had been timidly shuffling about the training ground. Once they all started attacking Hinata did what she always did when faced with something she hated doing. She let her mind go numb and allow training to take over. Fighting with grace and agility none of the other girls could match Hinata rendered girls unconscious left and right dropping them like flies. Her hits never left bruises, they never hurt, they were pin point accurate blows that immediately turned off her opponents minds. Ducking under a weak right jab Hinata continued moving forward and as she passed the girl by her right hand lashed out and nailed the girl on the back of the neck. And like clock work the girl crumpled over.

Across the training ground Ino was having a blast. The first few punches she had thrown had been sloppy as hell, with the added weight every time she tried to throw a hard punch it was so sloppy the other girls always avoided it and when they did Ino couldn't pull her arm back fast enough and left her defenses wide open. After taking two hits she decided to follow Naruto's advice and just aim the blows. Once she did that fighting became much easier. With the added weight her punches required no more than the minimum amount of effort yet they still hit harder than her punches used to. The added weight and momentum behind her punches was doing the work for her, so long as she landed a blow it was always a powerful hit.

And while she knew she wasn't doing near as well as Hinata was, Ino knew she was doing far better than most of the other girls out there on the field.

"Time!" Iruka called, straining to keep the disappointment out of his voice. That had been the worst brawl he had ever witnessed, other than Ino and Hinata none of the other girls had truly tried. Ino had shown the ability to attack and be aggressive, a bit brutal even which was needed for a ninja. Hinata on the other hand was astonishingly methodical and precise in her beatings. Sakura had done well, but she had been mirroring Ino most of the time. Never going as far as Ino did and never pulling any moves that Ino hadn't already pulled. It was saddening to see that the girl who had such brains couldn't step out of the blonde girls shadow.

Over all there were quite a few more girls left in the class than guys. However Iruka knew that come tomorrow that would more than likely be fixed.

"Alright class let's head in, your teacher should be here by now."

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Sarutobi took a drag from his pipe and let out a puff of smoke as he looked out the window looking out over the village.

"It's about time they meet her isn't it?"

"Yes. She will be perfect for what we want done." Danzo said and saw Sarutobi nod.

"Yes I know she will, though I do believe it best if we show up tonight. Be best they hear it from us than from her."

"Mmm. They will hear the same thing no matter who says it, does it really matter?"

"It will." Sarutobi said with a soft chuckle. "After what she does I doubt any of them will listen to a word she says." Danzo didn't respond merely let out a thoughtful hum to acknowledge he had heard him.

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Naruto smelt something was off. He was sitting back in his seat beside Ino but there was something in the air that he just couldn't place and it was annoying him to no end not knowing what the scent was. It was a smell he was familiar with but couldn't quite name. It wasn't fishy, it was more...

"Hey is something wrong?" Ino asked interrupting his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh no I just smell something odd and I know, I know what it is but I can't think of it." Naruto replied. Just as he was about to take another whiff of the air to try and figure out what the smell was the door to the class room was thrown open catching his attention. Since he couldn't see he didn't see who had walked into the room but he did know a few things about whoever it was. It was a girl, the stride was too light and smooth to be a guy. She was the origin of the scent he was trying to name and it reeked of snakes. Finally it clicked. Right as he heard her open her mouth to speak he knew who it was.

"Alright ya little snots! My name is Anko Mitarashi special jounin of Konoha! And I'm gonna be one of your teachers this year!" The entire class just stared in shock and awe at the woman that was supposed to be their teacher. What little clothing she wore was a burnt orange skirt that stopped before it began, a full body mesh suit with a trench coat over that. Every guy in the class, save Naruto and Sasuke, was openly staring at the display of womanly assets while many of the girls glared in jealousy.

Anko grinned at seeing all eyes on her, she had meant to catch their attention right off the bat. Now to scare the living hell out of the little punks. However before she could launch into her act she had rehearsed to scare them laughter echoed throughout the class. And _that_ was not planned.

"Haha Hebi-hime is gonna be our teacher? Oh this is gonna be fun!" Naruto laughed drawing all attention in the room back on himself

Ino looked at the blonde beside her as if he had gone nuts. _'He knows this woman! How?'_ Before she could finish that thought Naruto summoned his sword in a flash of blue chakra just fast enough to block the kunai Anko had thrown at him. Moving so fast none of the students could keep up with Anko appeared behind Naruto with another kunai pressed up against his throat. She was crouched down behind and to the right of him with her left hand pressing the kunai against his throat.

"You still wanna be mouthy gaki?" Anko hissed out with a sinister smile on her face.

"Always Hebi-hime." Naruto replied as he tapped the kunai he was holding against her stomach to let her know it was there.

"My my your growing up aren't you? You really wanna play this game? Here and now? Cause you know I'm always up for it. Come on you know you want to." She teased out in a sweet tone.

"Hmmm a tempting offer but I think you have a job to do." Anko huffed and pulled the kunai away from his neck, he dropped the kunai from her stomach and resealed his sword away as she plopped down in his lap.

"But I don't want to! The old farts tricked me into doing it I swear!" By now the entire class including Iruka was utterly bewildered by the wild changes in the violent woman's moods. Naruto however just chuckled and shook his head.

"You have to do it Hebi-hime, or would you like me to tell Dog about..." Naruto was cut off as Anko shoved him down so hard it shattered the chair he was sitting in and pushed him flush up against the wall. Before he could even blink seven kunai had pinned him to the wall and Anko was aiming an eighth at his manhood while flooding the room with killer intent.

"You _breath_ a word of that to a soul and I swear I will stake you to the ground naked in the middle of my forest and cover you in honey to see what sort of critters you attract, aside from my snakes of course." Anko hissed out as she narrowed her eyes at the boy. Only to notice for the first time that he was blindfolded, and grinning. Instead of looking petrified as she thought he should be he was grinning. How dare he grin! She was about to neuter him when he suddenly vanished and reappeared behind her.

"Now now calm down Hebi-hime, I won't tell a soul. And if you do your job quick I might even treat you to lunch at that Dango stand you love so much."

And just like that the killer intent vanished and Anko was once again the happy care free girl.

"Yipee!" Skipping down to the front of the class Anko pulled out a stack of papers and set them on Iruka's desk. "Alright then, you brats need to take this piece of paper home and get your mommies and daddies to sign it for you so that I have the legal right to scare the living shit out of you so that you will be mentally scarred for the rest of your lives!" All that said in a sing song voice filled with joy. That in and of itself was scarier than any of the other things the students had seen all day.

Due to that fear no one moved from their seats. With a sigh Naruto was the first to move, he walked up to the front, took a piece of paper and signed it himself before handing it back to Anko.

"Alright, now that that's done shall we eat?" The blonde asked offering his arm out to Anko who gladly took it. And then both of the loons skipped out the door leaving a very confused and disturbed class.

Ino watched Naruto walk out the door with the scary purple haired and only one thought was on the blonde's mind. _'What on earth sort of person is this guy?'_


	7. Chapter 7

Jrwest: Sasuke didn't kill the other students, he fired an attack that he as a genin could barely pull off meaning it was slow and no where near as powerful as it should have been. Sasuke's purpose behind using the fireball was to break up the huge brawl in the middle of the circle, Sasuke isn't a brawler, and once they were separated he could pick them off one by one.

Okay I have gotten review after review about Naruto's age so I'm going to take a second to clear that up for you guys. Naruto failed the academy twice. From all that I've seen and read it is a final YEAR at the academy he has to repeat. Meaning that since he failed twice he was held back twice and is thus two years older than Ino, Sakura, Kiba and all the others. That's just my understanding of things because a kid held back two years in school is two years older than his classmates. Also, I have only stated Naruto's age once (I went back and checked) and I said he was fifteen. Finally... this is my story, I can screw with the ages if I want.

**This chapter is a bit shorter than any of my other chapters but bear with me, I did get this out really fast and believe me it needed to end where it did. But you'll see what I mean in a bit. Anyways, enjoy!**

**Impure Perfection  
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><p><strong>Shattered Realities<strong>

Ino, along with all the other academy students aside from Naruto, were nervously sitting in their seats patiently awaiting their teacher to show up. Outside the sun was just coming to rest some where behind the hokage monument casting an orange hue over the entire village as well as the inside of the class room. Inside the room was silent with a buzz in the air, keeping everyone alert and anxious as well as preventing any one from starting up a conversation. The usual students that created the senseless chatter before class were so severely thinned from the test so far that the remaining few didn't dare try and break the soundless buzz that permeated the room.

The reason all the students were nervous was because for the first time since coming to the academy they were meeting for class as the sun set. After the elimination spar this morning and the introduction of the insane purple haired Anko they had been dismissed to get their consent forms filled by their parents or guardians. Not everyone's parents had been as easy to sway as her apparently. Several of the kids in the class hadn't returned yet and judging by the fact the sun had now set it didn't look likely that they would make it in time for class.

The anxious feeling that dominated those in the room started to grow as they heard someone walking down the hall. All the other classes were out for the day. All the teachers had gone home for thee day. Meaning the person coming down the hall could only be coming for them.

Ino glanced at the seat next to her which was still vacant.

_'Maybe his parents didn't sign off on his consent form?'_

Ino was pulled out of her thoughts as the door was tossed open and in strolled Anko. Apparently she was back in a good mood as she was humming to herself as she walked to the front of the desk and plopped down on it. She crossed her legs to keep certain perverts from peering up her skirt, rested her right elbow on her knee and rested her chin in the palm of her right hand.

Then... Nothing. For a good ten minutes she just sat there looking at all of them yet none of them in particular. Her eyes simply roved over them, a few of the more skittish ones refused to look her in the eye and instead glanced down at their desk. For some reason that seemed to make Anko happier as every time some one refused to meet her gaze her grin would grow. After a few looked away her grin had morphed into a sadistic smile that split her face.

Kiba having grown sick of being intimidated by this single woman growled at her before speaking up.

"Well are we gonna do anything besides sit her all night? Or is that class?" Kiba demanded. The instant he said it he regretted it. Anko's eyes flashed to him and he could have sworn he saw her eyes had slits in them for a fraction of a second. He was saved by Naruto fazing into existence out of the shadow behind the desk.

"Sorry about that hebi-hime had to find the consent thingy and fill it out real quick." Naruto said as he handed Anko the consent form. Soon as she had it he leaped up and over the room to come to rest in his now usual chair next to Ino. "Heyya! Miss me?" He asked cheekily. Ino just scoffed and shook her head.

"Your nuts. I was beginning to think your parents weren't going to sign the consent form."

"My parents..." Naruto trailed off with a confused look on his face for a moment before a small smile formed on his face. Turning to face away from her and look instead down at Anko who was in an argument with Kiba over whether or not she had been waiting on Naruto. "Na I don't have any parents. I'm an orphan, remember?" He could tell from the stillness in the air that she had forgotten. Letting out a laugh he continued. "Ah don't sweat it, you were a bit busy admiring how awesome my signature jutsu was. Totally understandable!" A huge grin broke out on his face and Ino couldn't help but giggle at his antics.

"Sure sure that's what it was." She said before turning her attention back to the front of the class seeing as Anko and Kiba's debate had come to a head with Anko laying the boy flat out on the ground.

Unknown to her Naruto was trying not feel the sting from the fact Ino hadn't paid attention to the fact he was an orphan. She had only known him a day or two, she couldn't be expected to notice little things like that. Right?

"Alright! Now if there are any further questions..." Anko announced to the class, leaving the question open but looking pointedly at Kiba to show how any further questions might end. "No? Good! Then follow me to hell!" With that she turned and started to march out of the classroom. The genin hopefuls followed silently without question, though all had questions on their mind none dared ask. Kiba was just getting back up as Naruto and Ino were walking out the door. Rubbing his head he strolled up along side them.

"Oi oi you really know that crazy old bat?" He asked of Naruto who nodded his head.

"Hebi-hime? Oh ya me and here have known each other for a while. Though word of advise, don't _ever _call her old to her face. She might kill you for it." Kiba paled.

"Kill me?" The Inuzuka squeaked out.

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All the green as grass genin hopefuls were slinking down some underground halls Anko had led them to after leading them out of the academy. When asked where they going the snake mistress only grinned and kept walking. Ever once in a while some unearthly sounding scream would echo down the halls, muffled by whatever doors the tortured souls were locked away behind. By now even Naruto was feeling on edge, this was one area of Konoha not even he had been in before.

They came to a halt at the very end of the hall. Before them stood a solid steel blast door with Anko leaning lazily up against it with a grin on her face that left many students quivering. If the grin didn't do the trick than Anko leveled a huge dosage of killing intent on them, enough to paralyze and silence them all.

"Alright brats listen up. You are now at the very center of Konoha's very own, private specialized interrogation center. Equipped with all the state of the art 'Make tough as nails men shit themselves in pain and agony for fun' devices. Delightful little toys really!" She sang in a cheery voice. "Well so long as your on the right end of em, get on the other side and well..." The sentence was ended with a dark ominous chuckle. "Now, are there any sorry ass, scaredy cat, thumb sucking, mommy's tit cuddlers who wanna leave?" Several hands started to lift into the air when Anko continued with a shout. "Too bad! Shouldn't have become ninja! Now get your worthless hides in the room!" Anko bellowed as she swung the massive door open with no apparent effort.

All of the students shuffled into the room in an effort to get away from the insane jonin in front of them. Even Naruto and Sasuke, usually unshakeable and fearless, were looking down at the ground and fighting off the instinctive urge to flee from the predatory gaze of Anko. She watched them all scuttle into the metal room before slamming the door shut behind them and locking it. With a satisfied grin she turned around only to come face to face with Ibiki Morino. She hesitated for only a moment before grinning at him.

"Yo Ibiki! Ready to mentally scar some cradle rockers?"

"Anko." The jonin said in an unamused tone. "You know not to kill him correct?"

"Of course!" Anko fired back with a snort. "I may have more fun with this than you do but I still follow the rules. Besides your mental games aren't what the Hokage want's them to see. It's my style of torture that he says they need to see."

"Mmmm." Ibiki only nodded and stepped aside as Anko skipped down the hall a ways before passing through a door to the left. "I wonder how much of this is Hokage-sama's idea and how much is Danzo's influence." Pushing the thought to the back of his mind for now Ibiki walked down the halls more familiar to him than the ones in his own home.

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Naruto stood back in one of the corners of the room trying to figure out what was going on. In the nervous and frightened atmosphere Anko had probably created on purpose all the students were to fearful to make any noise. Normally that would have been a good thing but at the moment it made figuring out where everything was difficult. The blonde knew he was standing in rectangular solid steel room, from the way the others were arranged he could tell there were three rows of ten chairs. From the fact none of the chairs moved despite the amount of movement the students sitting in them were doing he could tell they were bolted to the ground and more than likely made of steel as well. How high the ceiling went he couldn't tell but from the lay out of the room he guessed not too far up.

Naruto shifted his head to focus on Ino who was sitting in the back row on the chair all the way on the other end of the room from him. Hearing an animal whimper Naruto turned his head to focus on the two strong smells of dog in the room, Kiba and Akamaru were situated in the middle of the front row of chairs with Akamaru huddled up in Kiba's jacket. Smiling at the duo Naruto moved up to the front of the room and sat down in the chair furthest from where Ino was sitting. An unfamiliar scent to Naruto suddenly plopped down into the chair next to him. The scent was a mix of cherry blossoms when they first bloom, the earth right after a rainstorm and just a hint of writing ink blended into the mix. It was a rather pleasing scent.

Naruto had no time to wonder who it was or ask who it was as a moment after the girl sat down Anko's boisterous voice boomed into the room.

"Alright ya little maggots, pay attention! This is your introduction to the real world! Oh, and gaki you might want to slip that blindfold of yours off for a moment. Being blind will... take away from your enjoying pleasure."

Ino heard that and instantly looked over at Naruto. She was shocked to see two things. Firstly the fact that Naruto had done as the snake lady asked without question made Ino even more curious as to the relation between the two. Secondly, Sakura was sitting directly next to Naruto! The blonde let out a hiss of annoyance but her attention was drawn to the pitch black plate of glass all the chairs were facing a moment later when the lights came on.

Naruto slid the top layer of his bandages up and the bottom layer down, creating a tiny little slit for him to see through without revealing any more than what was directly in front of him. As he did so he saw the chairs were facing a black plane of glass set into a wall made of steel. Apparently Anko could see them some how because as soon as he finished parting his bandages the light on the other side of the glass came on shining a harsh florescent sheen onto the students in their darkened room.

The room on the other side of the glass was a perfect mirror of the one they were sitting in, apart from one glaring difference. In the very middle of the room, strapped to a steel gurney which was positioned so the students could see, was Mizuki. The chunin instructor was naked as the day he was born and bound to the gurney by leather straps around his ankles, thighs, wrist, forearm and shoulders. Behind the table stood Anko with a maniacal grin on her face.

Every academy girl shrieked and covered their eyes before turning away.

"Don't turn away!" Anko barked at them. "Look at him! Look!" Only one or two girls turned around, and hesitantly at that. "I said look damnit!" Anko now commanded, leaking killer intent as she did so. Now all the girls slowly turned around, more out of fear than of respect for her command. "Your ninja for fuck's sake! Is that how you would react if an enemy ninja popped out naked? You'd be dead if you did! Now, for the rest of this I don't want a single one of you to turn away. If you do you fail and will be flunked out of the academy like the spineless cowards you are!" Her rant over Anko sauntered around the table, the angry scowl that had been on her face moments before was now replaced with a seductive and victorious grin. Mizuki glared at her the entire way.

"Snake bitch." He growled out at her.

Anko only grinned wider.

"So that's the safe word?" Anko asked in a sweet tone that bewildered Mizuki. Before he even had a moment to figure out what she meant she whipped out a kunai and impaled it through his left hand. His hand had been laying against the steel palm down, the kunai was now driven through the steel table so far that its handle was touching the back of his hand. Anko watched, impressed to see he refrained from screaming. His head thrashed back and forth, the veins on his neck bulged but he stayed silent. Leaning in close so only he could hear she whispered in his ear. "I am going to make you hate that word as much as me, only way I stop is for you to say it again just know if you do then you have to spill on who you sold your information to. Understood?" She hissed out. Her answer was a hate filled glare. "Good! Of course I will also accept 'I love you Anko-sama!' or 'Hebi-hime' but just remember what you get if you surrender." She sang before jumping back and facing the crowd of horrified students.

"This is prisoner number 8176909. Name: Mizuki. Rank: Chunin. Crime: Treason. Sentence: Life imprisonment and interrogation for list of clientele . You little brats are here to see what being a ninja truly looks like. Any questions?"

A brown haired girl who was crying and pale as a ghost raised her hand.

"Can I go home?" She pleaded. "I don't wanna be a ninja any more." Her voice quivered and she seemed on the verge of having a nervous break down.

"Nope." Anko said with far to much glee in her voice. "You will stay here and watch, if you don't want to watch then look away and just listen. But one way or another you will learn that you can't just _play_ ninja. Every time you take a mission, no mater how mundane it may seem, _this_ is why you fight with everything you have. Because if you lose then _this _is what the enemy may do to you. And you're particularly unlucky, because your a girl so there is a whole slew of other things they could do to you." Anko made a grandiose gesture and bowed low speaking as an announcer for a play. "Now just sit back, relax, pull out any snacks you brought, and enjoy the show!"

Choji had stopped eating the moment he had seen Mizuki. His bag of chips now fell to the floor, spilling onto the steel floor unnoticed by the boy.

Anko looked over the students once before turning to face Mizuki once she was content they were all too shocked to look away.

"You called me a snake bitch earlier right? Well then allow me to live up to that name and introduce you to one a friend of mine." Placing her hand on Mizuki's shoulder in a comforting embrace a bright green and blue snake slithered out of her jacket sleeve just far enough to reach his neck. Then the reptile sank it's fangs deep into Mizuki's throat for an instant before retreating back into Anko's trench coat. "While we wait for her little gift to make it's way through her body let me inform of what just happened. You see she is a rare breed of snake, not very strong or fast. But, what her breed does have is a special neurotoxin. Since she isn't strong enough or fast enough to take down a big foe this toxin does the trick for her. What it does is amplify and heighten your sense of touch to such an extreme degree that every single movement feels like your skin is being ripped apart from the inside out. Eventually the pain gets so great that you can't move, at which point this beauty of a snake proceeds to eat you while your alive and conscious. Beautiful isn't it?"

Two genin of the thirty locked in the room hurled. One hurled on another girl and caused her to vomit as well. Not a one could tear their eyes away from the sight before them. There was nothing particularly gruesome about it, only a small trail of blood was leaking from the kunai in Mizuki's hand and the snake bite had left no visible wound. Yet the sheer horror in which they were trapped prevented them from moving, fear had filled their veins with lead to deaden their limbs, terror had numbed their minds to stop them from looking away from that which they didn't want to see.

Mizuki himself was doing his best to not panic. He could already feel the toxin taking affect, his body was tingling and even the slightest movement in the air felt like a stinging pressurized wind scratching at his skin. The kunai in his hand had gone from a throbbing pain to a searing sun of intense pain that left him gaping for air. It took all he had to lot let the pain break him. Then Anko ran a finger down the length of his, her nail turned sideways to act like a sort of blade dug into his skin cutting him worse than if she had actually sliced him open. Her hand came to a sudden halt on the kunai moving the blade around his his hand and eliciting the first shout of pain from him.

"Aww? Is my kunai hurting your poor little hand?" Anko cooed. "Here let me get it out for you, I'll be sure to do it as _slowly_ as possible so I don't hurt your itty bitty hand." The sarcasm dripped from her voice like the toxin running through his veins. Anko gave the kunai a savage tug, pulling the blade back a hair of an inch so it was free from the metal she had jabbed it through. From there on out she pulled it out inch by inch, taking long pauses in between each tug to ensure he didn't black out from the pain and so that he felt every tug individually instead of just one long stream of pain.

Mizuki writhed in sheer agony, lurching his head back and forth in a vain attempt to free himself from the pain that was eating at his mind. Spots danced in his vision each time she touched the kunai and he felt himself on the verge of blacking out several times only for her to wait for him to steady himself before continuing. His mind was blank, any thoughts that had been in his mind before were gone. All he could think of was the brutal pain that tore his mind asunder and left him shrieking and screaming out in a frenzy like a rabid dog.

At long last the kunai was pulled from his hand. But the pain wouldn't stop. His nerves had been so hyper sensitized that the air and blood flowing through the now open wound felt like liquid fire, boiling his skin as it seeped out of the wound and over his skin. It was not a minute later when he felt a pair of pliers grabbing his right thumbnail. His eyes snapped open, not knowing or caring when they had shut, to look in renewed terror as Anko gave a slight tug on his nail. When she did that his head slammed back against the steel gurney and a primal roar of anguish ripped its way through his already raw throat.

"Oops!" Anko mumbled in a childlike tone. "Seems they are in their pretty tight. Ah well, don't you worry a bit! Pulling the kunai out slowly seemed like it hurt, so now I'll try doing it fast!" That said she gave one vicious jerk and ripped his thumbnail clean out.

Mizuki howled in pain. Whether his eyes were open or not all he could see was pain. There pain was in no particular color yet he could still see it. It flashed behind his eyes and set them ablaze even as tears poured out of his eyes and set his cheeks on fire. His back ached and was being rubbed raw from where he struggled against the bonds and his bare back rubbed against the steel gurney. Then Anko ripped his middle finger's nail out and the pain doubled, it was so intense now that he couldn't black out. No matter what he did, what he thought, how he moved and writhed he couldn't get away from the pain.

The academy kid's watched in a mix of morbid fascination and shock induced paralysis as Anko proceeded to rip and tear every last nail out of Mizuki's hand. The floor around his gurney was now covered in blood that was being splashed about as Anko stepped back and forth, swapping which hand she mutilated.

Ino's mouth hung open, her eyes were widened further than she knew they could get and tears were running down her cheeks. She wanted to look away. To look at the floor, at the lights, at the vomit on the floor by her chair, _anything _other than the inhuman treatment of her former teacher. But she couldn't and wouldn't look away. She couldn't because her body refused to move, other than her hand moving to her mouth in horror, she couldn't move a muscle. She wouldn't look away because she refused to quit and bow out, she would not allow herself to give up on being a ninja before she even started. And so she looked on.

Many of the other students in the room were in the same situation, wanting to look away yet couldn't out of sheer determination to become a ninja. Shikamaru, Choji, Hinata, Shino, Sakura, Kiba and about a dozen others all looked on. A great many looked away, crawled out of the chair and next to the wall where they covered their ears to try and block out the sounds of a person begging for death in between shouts of pain and suffering.

Sasuke and Naruto were the only two who looked on without shock in their faces. Sasuke had seen his entire clan mutilated, his own family butchered by the blade of his brother. The shock and awe of seeing a human life being extinguished had already been gotten over by the Uchiha. And so he watched with morbid fascination, replaced Mizuki's image with that of the only other remaining Uchiha clan heir.

Naruto on the other hand was shocked, not by the torture as he had been subject to that once in his life, but by how Anko was acting. He had seen her angry before and knew she could be down right nasty but this was beyond anything he imagined her being capable of. The torture was nothing to him, seeing one of his few precious people in such a light however was a real blow to how he had envisioned the world. His world was far from being rose colored but even still it was no where near as dark as this. Naruto took it in a stride though, swallowing a lump of bile in his throat he tried to comprehend that his friend was capable of far more than he knew.

Anko finished her work of ripping his nails out and stepped back to admire her work. His hands were bleeding out at a steady rate and were beginning to take on a purplish color, from him thrashing his hands about and from the blood loss. His left hand was particularly grotesque, blood and muscle were showing in the gouge her kunai had left and his fingers were all purple and blue. Knowing by her mental clock that her hour of time was almost up and that she only had another minute or two before the toxin started wearing off she decided to make another lash at him to try and break him.

"Ahhh poor Mizuki-kun! I've caused you so much pain." Anko cooed, pressing herself up against him despite the blood it got on her. Normally any many would be glad to have her press her body up against them, however in Mizuki's case it only served to set his entire body into motion. He cried out in agony and writhed in an attempt to get himself away from her, her pressing up against him felt like he was being crushed from the inside out. But Anko refused to let him get away from her, moving closer to him every time he slid any bit further away from him. She trailed her nails up and down his stomach and across his chest in what looked like a lovers embrace but felt more like a a chain of glass tearing his skin to shreds. "I know _just_ how to make it up to you." Anko purred out in a seductive tone as her hand dipped down to wrap around his exposed manhood.

Mizuki's eyes went wide. Not in pleasure or in shock at the offer. His whole body would scream out from the slightest touch, where she was grabbing now contained more nerve endings than any other part of his body. A savage shout erupted from his throat, forming the first intelligent words he had spoken.

"I give! I give! I give! Just STOP!" Mizuki screamed out, his voice scratchy from all the screaming he had done.

"Nu-huh, that wasn't out safe word." Anko said in a sing song voice. Squeezing down on his rod harder than she knew any man would want she jerked out stretching his flesh beyond what it should go while he was limp. Mizuki's eyes rolled back into his head as he slammed his head back against the gurney, his face fixed into an expression of silent a scream. Releasing his dick she waited for his mind to reboot from the shock of pain she had just put him through. It was a good ten minutes later before his mind had recovered enough to think straight. "Now, what were you saying?"

"Snake bitch." He mumbled out, his tone dripping with hate and loathing so intense it burnt. Anko however was immune to his hate and just clapped her hands, twirling away from him to smile at the horrified class on the other side of the glass.

"How lovely! Then please tell the class and me all that you can give, its all being recorded to go ahead and get all those dirty little secrets off your chest."

Mizuki looked out at the class and glared at every single one of them, pleased to see most all of them shrink back from his gaze. Sasuke didn't but Mizuki hadn't expected him too, kid had seen his family killed there probably wasn't much that would shock him. Kiba and Shino didn't, Kiba because his family was naturally hardy and Shino because the bug user was trained to show no emotion. Hinata burst into tears and started to openly sob when he glared at her and that put a smile on his face. But Naruto, Naruto didn't flinch or shy away from his hate and that ate Mizuki up. However...

"Fine." Mizuki said in a defeated done after he finished glaring at the audience. "You want my dirty secret here it is." Anko heard the pause and expected he was getting rid of any doubts left in his mind about telling. "Naruto Uzumaki is the container of the Kyuubi no Kitsune!" Everyone froze and Mizuki used that to keep going. "He is a monster hiding in human flesh! Only by law is he allowed to live, save yourselves and kill him!" That said Mizuki lay back against the table with a satisfied smirk on his face as he watched Naruto through the glass. _'Now it's my turn to watch you suffer demon brat.'_ The tortured man thought with glee.

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Naruto's blood was frozen and his limbs were numb. For a full second his mind was blank, not a single thought passed through his mind. Just a black void. Then his mind clicked with what had just been said, he could already feel the gazes of several kids falling on his back. He heard the girl next to him turn in her seat, probably to stare at him as well.

Reaching up with his left hand in a smooth and controlled manner Naruto pulled the cover back over his eyes. The reasoning behind the blindfold he had given Dog was a real reason and one he actually was using, but it was far from the only reason. With the blindfold Naruto could tell where people and objects were without having to see the glares of the people. It served to keep to keep that cold look out of his mind, and right now Naruto needed that. As he was sure all the kids in the class were already starting to hate him. Just like everyone else in the village.

A raging fury turned to frozen blood into a liquid magma in his veins, filling him with an unquenchable desire to destroy. A snarl slipped out from between his lips and his hands curled into fist. The rest of his body was tensed and ready for action, all it needed was the command.

Anko regretted the moment of shock she had felt. It had given Mizuki another second to shout his nonsense for the kids to hear, and from the looks they were giving Naruto she was sure they would probably believe what they heard if someone didn't set them straight soon. Her first instinct was to silence Mizuki so he didn't have a chance to say any more, however the subtle movement of Naruto covering his eyes once again set her on edge. She had known the kid long enough to know when he moved slow it was only because he was about to prank someone or was about to get violent. Based on circumstances she expected the latter of the two. And her assumptions were proven true not a second later.

"YOU BASTARD!" Naruto shouted, his voice deeper than Anko remembered it being. In a burst of speed the blonde launched out of the chair and pulled his sword out of it's seal in a flash of blue light. A single slash with the sword and Naruto was through the glass and bearing down on the still grinning Mizuki. Naruto reared back with the sword and channeled as much chakra into the blade as he possibly could, the bandages were beginning to glow a blueish white from the intensity of the chakra contained inside them. Naruto saw only Mizuki's smug grin, all else was irrelevant at the moment. The only thing he could think of was destroying Mizuki's face so he could never grin again.

Anko saw the incoming blonde and, despite her personal feelings on the situation, knew it was better to stop him. The kid might hate her for a bit for denying him his vengeance but if the other academy students saw him decapitate the slimy bastard their view of Naruto would be exactly what Mizuki wanted it to be. They would see him as a demon child, a monster capable of killing without remorse and controlled by rage. So Anko did what had to be done.

She stepped in between Mizuki and Naruto as she pulled out a kunai with her left hand and moved it to block the sword as Naruto moved to swing the blade. To Anko's utter astonishment the bandaged blade started to cut through her kunai. Growling in annoyance Anko funneled her own earth based chakra into her kunai to stop the blade midway through her kunai. Despite having his weapon neutralized Anko saw that Naruto was still focused on ripping Mizuki apart. In a blur Anko's right hand shout out and stabbed two fingers into Naruto's solar plexus. Instantly the chakra drained out of Naruto's sword as well as his limbs, the single blow also served to counter Naruto's momentum and freeze him in the air for a millisecond. In that instant Anko lashed out again with a palm strike to the chest that knocked Naruto out and sent him sprawling across the floor till he crashed against the wall.

A hoarse chuckle came from the table.

"I tell the demon brat's secret and get saved by the snake bitch?" Mizuki questioned, a smug and arrogant smirk on his face. His voice was scratchy from the screaming and it hurt to talk but that didn't stop him from smiling. "Should have done that a long time ago then." The silver haired chunin opened his mouth again only to be silence by a chop to the neck courtesy of Ibiki.

"This is going to be problematic." The scarred special jonin said in a matter of fact tone. "Especially explaining to all the parents why their children were knocked out." He said watching as Anko whirled around to see that sure enough all the students had been knocked out by two ANBU who had appeared.

Anko let out a sigh, then glared at the unconscious form of Mizuki.

"I should have let the brat kill him."

"Perhaps, but would he have thanked you for it later if the other children came to hate him?" Ibiki questioned, his voice still neutral as always. It had the desired affect on the snake mistress, she sighed again and shook her head.

"No, but he still deserves to kill him. Think the old monkey will let the gaki execute him?"

"Probably not, but we shall have to wait and see."

Both of the jonin turned to look at the unconscious form of Naruto. One with sympathy and care, the other with an apathetic yet analytical gaze.


	8. Chapter 8

**Shifting Shadows**

Iruka looked over the class and shook his head. Yes they were talkative and noisy but that was nothing new. No, what was new about this was what the kids were discussing. It was the topic of Naruto and what they had heard and seen last night. Instead of walking away from the torture session with a fear and respect for the ninja world as Sarutobi and Danzo had hoped, the students had seemingly forgotten it and replaced it with the knowledge that Naruto held the nine tailed fox.

Oh a few of them had been far too traumatized by the interrogation procedure to even notice what Mizuki had said. Those few had dropped out of the academy, all were setting up appointments with the Yamanaka clan to have their minds evaluated, and if they wanted have the memory purged.

But those few were the exception not the rule. It total only seven students had dropped out leaving the class total at just over fifteen students. Compared to the thirty six students that had previously been enrolled in this class it was an alarming decrease. Though when Iruka had reported the drop in students this morning to the Hokage, the old man had seemed pleased about it. Thinking back on this morning's debriefing Iruka couldn't help but notice how odd it was compared to all the other meetings he attended since becoming an academy instructor.

**FlashBack**

Iruka looked around the room taking in the multiple faces present. He, along with all the other instructors the Hokage had lined up to teach at the academy, were gathered in a large assembly room in the Hokage building. Iruka had been called in early to the debriefing as apparently there was some new matter that needed to be addressed. The only people missing from the meeting were Sarutobi and Danzo.

A minute or two later and both of the missing shinobi fazed into existence in the room, startling all present. No one had sensed the chakra being used as both of them had shushined into the room without a puff of smoke. Iruka blinked in shock, the immense gap in skill between those in the room compared to those in charge was blatantly making itself known for the first time in ages.

"Sorry to summon you all here early on such short notice but it was needed." Sarutobi stated once he had settled into his chair, foregoing formal greetings and launching straight into business. "As some of you are aware there was an incident last night during the academy's scheduled visit to the Interrogation Corps. During the interrogation session the victim of the interrogation, a man named Mizuki, revealed to the entire class the fact Naruto holds the Kyuubi."

A hand in the back of the room went up to which Sarutobi nodded, allowing the man to speak.

"Would it not be a simple task to merely wipe the memories of the children?"

Sarutobi nodded but instead of answering he turned his head to look at Danzo.

"It would be, however since we have decided to revamp the school curriculum and training programs to better acclimate the students for the true life of a shinobi should we shelter them from the truth? Keep the lies up, keep the secrets buried as long as possible only for them to inevitably surface? Would it be better to wait until the middle of a battle for them to find out and possibly abandon the boy? Or would it be better to let them know now where we can control and influence their perception of the child? True we cannot control what their parents say about him but we can control what _we_ say about it. So tell me is it better to let their parents say what they want while we stay silent in order to keep a secret that will inevitably come out, or to reveal the secret in order for us to have our own say?"

All in the room were silent at that. For the most part a majority of the room agreed with the bandage wearing man, seeing the logic in it. Many disagreed knowing just how vicious people could be, however even those that disagreed knew it would be better to have the viciousness come out now than in the middle of a fight. Or worse in the middle of a war were it to break out some time in the future.

Seeing that no one had any further questions Sarutobi resumed speaking.

"Now since the children know I have decided to repeal the law banning people to talk about Naruto being a jinchuuriki." That stirred yet another fuss among the gathered ninja however Sarutobi quelled the onslaught of questions before they could begin by leaking enough killer intent to cut them off. "However... that does not mean I must publicly announce that the law is being repealed." A tiny smile formed on Sarutobi's face as he watched the ninja in the room process the information and realize what he was getting at.

"In other words, we will be able to say what we want but the parents will be limited because they still believe the law to be in place?" Anko snickered. "Oh now that's just dirty! I like it." Anko regretted speaking out when she saw both Sarutobi and Danzo turn their gaze on her. "Aw shit." The snake mistress muttered.

"Now I am curious as to how Mizuki managed to get so many words out before being silenced. Care to enlighten us Miss Mitarashi?" Sarutobi scolded.

Instead of backing down Anko shifted her weight and sighed.

"Ya, the bastard caught me off guard with it."

"That's it?" Danzo asked, unamused.

"Yes that's it. Would you prefer I babbled on about some pathetic excuse that we all know is bull shit? I was watching the students, he shocked me with that, I froze. End of story. Anything else is irrelevant really."

Danzo scowled at the woman but said nothing knowing she wasn't going to back down.

Sarutobi grinned and shook his head.

"Well then since you made such a simple mistake your punishment will be simple. Treat Naruto to an all you can eat feast at Ichiraku's."

The room was dead silent.

"Your kidding?" Danzo drawled out, beginning to think the soft Sarutobi was coming back out.

"Nope." Sarutbi replied with a grin. "At the least it will cost her an A-rank mission's pay, if not more. And that is a higher fine than I can legally charge her so this suits my needs just fine." Sarutobi finished with his grin turning into a smirk.

"T-t-that's not fair!" Anko stammered out, glaring at the hokage. "Not only will it empty my wallet but the gaki will be glaring at the the entire time! Come on, give me an S-rank instead! You know you have a nice bloody one sitting in your drawer somewhere!"

As the Hokage and Anko went back and forth Iruka tuned them out and just waited for the debriefing to resume. As Iruka was re-evaluating how he would handle students based on the new info a stray thought popped into his mind.

"So then are we to talk about Naruto hosting the Kyuubi on purpose or just in a corrective manner as the students bring it up?" Iruka said giving voice to the thought, as he had spoken without raising his hand cutting he inadvertently cut Anko off.

"A good question. The answer is that you are to only speak of it when a student is speaking about it or viewing it the wrong way?"

"And how exactly _should_ they think about it?" Iruka countered.

"As what he is, a jinchuuriki. He holds the fox but is not the fox, he is not a demon or a monster or anything other than a normal teenage boy. Though some might see that as worse." Sarutobi replied, the last sentence aimed at Inoichi who was standing in the back of the room. "Joking aside Naruto is to be viewed as a boy who holds something within himself. Would it not be fair to compare Naruto to the Aburame? Both carry beings aside from themselves within their bodies. Now if there are no further questions shall we continue?"

When no other hands or questions were brought up the meeting progressed as normal, the schedule for the coming semester to be agreed upon.

**Flashback End**

Pulling his mind out of memory lane as he sensed Naruto nearing the classroom Iruka sat back and waited to see how things would play out.

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Naruto trudged onwards to class. The anger at Mizuki giving out his secret was gone, in its place was contentment. Looking down at his palm where his sword was sealed away Naruto shook his head knowing he wouldn't be able to use the blade for a while.

_'I'll need to get new bandages to wrap the sword before I can unseal it in public. Maybe wrapping a weapon used to kill in white had been a bad idea? Ah well this time I'll just get red bandages so blood stains don't show up. Or maybe black?'_

So lost in thought Naruto didn't even notice that he had walked into the classroom or the fact that he had already taken his usual seat next to Ino. What he did take notice of was the fact that the entire classroom had fallen silent and was now filled with an awkward silence. No one was willing to say anything and no one wanted to say anything.

Sighing Naruto guessed this was how the academy was going to be from now on.

Though before long a voice that no one recognized broke the silence.

"Oi, Iruka-sensei why did it suddenly get so quiet?"

All eyes in the classroom turned to look at the kid who had spoken up. He was a boy of average height with solid black hair that was cut short and slicked back except for in the very front where a several locks of hair defiantly stood straight up. His skin was evenly tanned, darker than any of the other kids in the class but not so dark as to stand out. He was dressed in simple navy blue pants that reached down to his ankles where they ended with frayed edges. His shirt was a simple jet black t-shirt.

Naruto looked in the direction the voice had come from and narrowed his eyes.

_'Who is this kid? I've never heard his voice before or smelt his scent, is he new?'_

"I don't know Atsuo, maybe it's because the instructor for this month has yet to show?" Iruka replied startling all in the classrooms as they all began to doubt their own memory. Surely Iruka knew who was and wasn't in the class. "In any case I'll go fetch him so you guys stay put. It shouldn't take long." With that the brown haired instructor walked out of the classroom.

Iruka's departure had for the most part taken the attention in the room off, with the majority of the class having decided Naruto and Atsuo's presence no longer mattered conversation resumed. Though all wisely kept the topic of Naruto out of their conversations.

Naruto for his part focused on Atsuo and listened closely to what the boy did. However a voice Naruto was familiar with took his attention off the oddity of a classmate.

"So where were you this morning Naruto?" Ino asked, turning in her seat to glare at the boy. "I woke up and got ready so you couldn't say I took forever and yet when it's time for you to show an ANBU pops up at my place saying you won't be coming. What happened?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head nervously, not wanting to give away what he had been doing.

"Well, you see..."

"Did you get in trouble for trying to kill Mizuki?" Ino asked, unable to keep the question to herself.

"No not really, the hoakge just wanted to talk to me about it."

"Ooh. Um, about what Mizuki..." Ino started to ask only to be cut off by a third voice.

"May I ask how it was you shattered that glass so easily?" Atsuo asked causing both the blondes to jump in their seats, both startled by the sudden appearance of the boy who was now sitting on their desk. "My dad works in the interrogation department and he said that glass is really strong. Yet you shattered it like it was nothing, how was that?"

"With my sword of course, you would have known that if you had been there." Naruto challenged, not trusting this kid in the least.

"But I was, I sat in the back. You were sitting up front so you must have not seen me before." Atsuo replied smoothly.

"No you weren't. I sat in the back so I would have seen you, and I've been in the class for years and have never seen you. So who are you?" Ino pressed, hoping to make the kid squirm. However instead of revealing his identity the black haired boy just grinned and walked away. "The heck is his problem?"

"No idea, but it's odd that Iruka thought he was part of the class." Naruto replied, his hearing now refocused on Atsuo's steps as the boy walked around the room talking to the other occupants. "Maybe it's a genjutsu?"

"No Iruka is really good with genjutsu, if there had been one he would have detected it and dispelled it." Ino responded, keeping her eyes on the boy. At least she was until a fangirl of Sasuke tapped her on the shoulder.

"My my, already eyeing up a new victim? Isn't the beast beside you enough?" A brown haired girl sneered, at Ino thought the insult was directed at Naruto.

The blonde growled but ignored the jab, instead trying to focus on the new boy. Sadly for him the brown haired girl didn't let up.

"I mean, aren't you scared to let him sit by you?" The girl continued, unknowingly earning Naruto's annoyance and attention.

Naruto heard the girl open her mouth to say more but the sound of a light thud followed by a yelp of pain cut the brown haired girl off.

"Now Ami, you best watch yourself or you'll let your stupid show." A new voice cut in catching Naruto off guard.

_'Damn, I was so busy focusing on the new guy I didn't pay attention to the people around me. I need to always pay attention to my surroundings.'_ Naruto mentally scolded himself while dropping his focus from the new stranger and instead paying attention to his immediate surroundings. Ino was still sitting in the same spot and the new girl, identified as Ami, was standing at the end of the desk with her right hand drumming a beat on the wooden desk. Simply based on how she spoke and her voice Naruto decided to ignore her for the time being and instead focus on the third voice, which came from the same girl that had sat next to Naruto during the interrogation last night.

"Ow! What was that for Sakura?" Ami whined, by the sound of hair swishing about Naruto guessed the girl had turned to glare at this Sakura girl.

"That was for being an idiot. A scroll with a kunai sealed within it is not a kunai, Naruto holds the fox he is not the fox. If you can't understand that then how you made it this far is beyond me." Sakura said dismissively, then walked around Naruto to sit next to him on the opposite side of him than Ino. "Sorry about that, Ami is the lowest ranking kunoichi in the class so you must pardon her sometimes."

Naruto blinked and nodded dumbly.

"Uh, yeah I guess." Naruto replied lamely, causing Sakura to giggle. And Naruto couldn't help but think that it might be nice to hear that more often. The blonde was about to try and make a more intelligent response when he heard an almost inaudible growl from the other side of him. Turning around to face Ino Naruto cocked his head to the side. "Oi, Ino-chan are you hungry? I thought I heard you growl."

For the first time since meeting him Ino was truly grateful that Naruto blindfolded himself. As at that moment she looked ready to kill him.

"Huh, oh yeah I'm fine Naruto-kun." Ino responded, careful to keep her voice level. "But what about that new guy?"

"Oh!" Naruto exclaimed, having totally forgotten about the boy again. Extending his senses back over the crowd Naruto easily picked out the sound of the boy talking to Kiba. Oddly enough the feral youth was in a heated debate with the strange new guy.

"You are not in this class!" Kiba yelled while slamming his fist down, startling the entire class and catching everyone's attention. "I know the scent of everyone in this room, even the new guy is familiar to me but you are new. So I wanna know who the hell you are and I wanna know now!"

Akamaru yapped at the new guys as well, evidently supporting Kiba wholeheartedly.

The new guy sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"I knew having an Inuzuka in the class was gonna make blending in difficult. Well guess the gig is up." With that the boy hopped back from Kiba's desk to land on Iruka's desk. Landing in a crouch when he stood back up he seemed taller than before, about the size of the average adult. Popping his neck to the left and right the boy that had turned into a man groaned. "It really is hard blending in among kid's, so tight nit ya little brat's are."

"Who are you?" Shikamaru asked, shocking several that he was actually awake enough to take part in what went on in the class.

"Me? I'm Atsuo, as Iruka said. However I am not a fellow student I am your instructor for this month."

"But Iruka..." One student started only to be cut off by Atsuo.

"Iruka never said I was a student, he merely chose to not comment on my presence. One thing you need to learn is never assume anything. Any time you assume all you're doing is making an ass out of you me. Always be willing to question your instructors cause frankly not all of us are gonna be honest." Chuckling Atsuo grinned. "I sure as hell won't be honest with you because that is what I'm here to teach you. You see I am a very special sort of ninja." Turning his gaze upon Hinata Atuso grinned. "And there is the Hyuuga I was looking for."

Hinata let out an eep and blushed, trying to hide within her jacket as all eyes in the class turned on her.

"Miss would you mind using your byakugan on me and telling the class what you see?"

Blushing furiously as she did so Hinata nodded before concentrating and activating her clan's signature bloodline. Veins bulging around and through her pupil less white eyes Hinata let out a gasp a moment later.

"Y-y-you h-have no chakra." Hinata stuttered out, the blush fading from her face as the shock of seeing a ninja with virtually no chakra.

"Correct. As you know all humans have the potential at a young age to learn to be shinobi, to learn to mold chakra and as they learn their chakra coils grow. I on the other hand never had that ability. When I was born I was born with all the chakra I would ever have, I cannot replenish my chakra reserves. Meaning, if I use any chakra I drop dead. Even the tiniest bit will land my ass in the hospital for the rest of my life. However I wanted to be a ninja, so I learned all I could and eventually became what I am today. There are many names for what I do pickpocket, shadow, eavesdropper, thief, assassin, infiltrator, the list goes on and on but in short I am a ninja that is never seen or heard unless you see me as I want. Such as you guys seeing me as a kid and as your classmate."

"So then you're just a really trained civilian?" One kid asked, laughter evident in his voice.

"You could say that." Atuso admitted with a shrug before grinning and holding up a brown sack that no one had noticed he had. "But before you write me off how about we see what all I _borrowed_ from you guys." Reaching into the sack and pulling out a hand full of panties girls across the room shrieked as they realized he was holding their panties. "Now I don't know about your parents but I would be very ashamed if my daughter walked around in some of these. But enough of that what else do we have in here." Tucking the bundle of undergarments back in the back Atsuo dug around in his sack for a bit, making all in the classroom sweat wondering what he would pull out this time. When he pulled out several bags of potato chips everyone was confused for a split second before Choji gasped.

"That... is my entire stash of chips!"

"It is? Hmm well we'll see how many of them are left at the end of this month." Tossing the chips back into the bag, all in the class ignoring Choji's protest that the chips might crumble, Atsuo hesitated before revealing the next to items. A simple leather book and a wallet in the shape of a frog. "These two items are the most disturbing and frankly I don't know which is worse. The book has some _interesting_ writings and a guy carrying around a frog shaped wallet is just sad.

Naruto opened his mouth to call the man out but someone beat him to it, and it wasn't who anyone was expecting.

"Give that back." Sasuke demanded, standing up and glaring bloody death at the man.

"My my such a nasty look!" Atsuo taunted before tossing the book back into his sack. "But no you won't be getting this back from me willingly, you see that is your assignment for this week. You are supposed to steal back whatever I stole from you, however you want in whatever way works for you. I will have all these items on my person at all times for the next week. At the end of this week I will write the names of all those who have yet to retrieve their items and will take any questions you might have. You see another thing the academy is trying to teach you is to take initiative, no longer will we spoon feed you information. If you want to know something ask it, if not then learn through the school of hard knocks."

Reaching into the frog purse and pulling out two marble sized spheres Atsuo grinned at the fact Naruto couldn't see what was coming.

"And now, class begins!" Throwing the two balls down the entire class expected a smoke screen, or perhaps a flash. No one except Atsuo was expecting for the two orbs to explode with paint, covering half the class in orange pain and the other half in purple.

Atsuo laughed and instead of using a shushin as all the other instructors would have he simply walked out the door. Leaving behind a classroom of students frozen in shock and covered in paint.

"Well..." Naruto started, rubbing his mouth to rid it of paint before continuing. "Am I orange or am I purple?"

"Purple, we are covered in purple!" Sakura screeched. "Why are we covered in purple?" She shouted, only to be answered by Naruto's laughter.

"Cause I had _planned_ to use those to get revenge on Anko later Guess I'll just have to make more paint bombs."

Ino chuckled and shook her head.

"So you were gonna paint bomb her to get revenge? Why purple and orange?" Ino asked, amused by the situation as being purple wasn't too horrid. Now if she had been covered in orange like the other half of the class she would be livid. "And please tell me this stuff washes out."

"Huh, oh of course! I might wanna get back at her but I wouldn't ruin her stuff. This stuff washes out real easy, not the first time I've had a paint bomb thrown back in my face." Clapping his hands together and standing up Naruto did a back flip over his chair to land up against the wall and a bit away from the other students. With a pulse of his chakra Naruto blew a good portion of the paint off his body. "Alright, paint is taken care. Now to go own this son of a gun!"

"I am with you on that one fox." Kiba agreed.

The entire class went silent.

"Why did you call me fox?"

"Because you bloody reek of foxes. Even before the mess with Mizuki I noticed that you stunk of foxes."

"That might be because every now and again I sleep out in the woods with the foxes."

A brown haired kid by the name of Yuki snorted.

"You must be stupid or something, there are no foxes around Konoha any more. No one has seen a fox around here in ages."

Naruto just shrugged.

"Or maybe you all are too blind to see them." Naruto turned his attention away from the arrogant boy and refocused it back on Kiba. "Now do you think you and your dog could help me track down this guy? With him having no chakra it'll be a pain for me to find him."

"I could, but then again can't you track scents as well?"

"I can but it's not really my specialty, you guys on the other hand are famous for tracking." Naruto added hoping stroking the feral youths ego might spur him into action.

Kiba snorted.

"My clan might be, but we have never been real good at it. Personally we prefer fighting over tracking, right Akamaru?"

The little dog gave a bark of agreement before hopping onto the desk and playfully growling at Naruto.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the dog before grinning. Dropping down into a crouch and growling back Naruto was satisfied to hear the dog start barking wildly at him. Laughing the blonde stood back up.

"Fair enough, well then what say you we team up against this slippery bastard?"

Kiba eyed the boy in front of him for a moment. Honestly he knew nothing about the blonde before him, other than the boy was full of surprises. The fact Naruto held the Kyuubi weighed in as well but then again Kiba had felt no malicious intentions or evil ideals, the boy was just a blonde goof walking around blindfolded. Thinking of what his mom would say if she were there Kiba sighed and nodded.

"Sure, why not? Between a fox and a dog we can't lose!"

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**Two Days later**

Ino grinned down at Naruto, watching as for the first time she had managed to render him speechless. It was a feat Ino was rather proud of.

"What's the matter whiskers, cat got your tongue?" Ino teased.

The Yamanaka was staring down at Naruto from the underside of a tree limb, nothing but the soles of her feet were touching the tree and yet impossibly she was still attached to it. Yesterday Naruto had introduced the tree climbing exercise to her and Ino had tried her hardest to get it down in one day. Sadly her chakra reserves prevented her from doing so. She managed to work on it for an hour or two straight but then her chakra reserves had grown so exhausted she couldn't muster up enough to stay attached to the tree. Today was only the second day she had been working on it and to both her and Naruto's utter astonishment she had gotten it after only a few tries today.

"B-b-but it took me nearly two weeks to get it!" Naruto spluttered.

Ino giggled and shrugged.

"Eh, I've always had puny chakra reserves but nearly perfect chakra control. I can already perform the academy three."

Naruto balked at that. She can do the academy three? He has been working on those three for_ years_ and he can't pull the clone jutsu. Yes he still has Kyuubi limiting him but still, to not even have completed her final year yet and already have that level of chakra control just irked Naruto.

"That is so not fair!" Naruto sulked, crossing his arms over his chest and huffing.

"Aww!" Ino whined in mock sympathy. Dropping from the branch and rolling in the air to land on her feet Ino walked over to Naruto and patted him on the head. "There there, you still own me and all the other kid's in the academy in chakra reserves." Seeing the scowl leave his face Ino stepped back. "Now, if you're done sulking can we continue?"

"I was not sulking!" Naruto shouted.

"Sure you weren't." Ino cooed, teasing him again. She just couldn't help it, it was too much fun getting him riled up. "Just like I didn't master the tree climbing exercise in a day."

"You little..." Naruto shouted before trying to pounce the girl in front of him.

Ino gave a shriek before dashing off, trying in vain to outrun the blonde chasing her. She knew she wouldn't win, the only way she could even try and prolong it was to stay away from any shadows. The instant she went near a shadow she knew it would be over. She still had no idea how he did what he did with the shadows but at the moment she didn't really care, it was too much fun running him around the place.

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**Later That Day**

Naruto was watching Atsuo walk down the street, not a care in the world or worry about all the genin he had coming after him.

Beside Naruto Kiba was watching as well, the two had linked up with one another around lunch. Since they had been unable to locate their instructor yesterday they had agreed to meet up today and continue their search.

"So, you wanna go first or shall I?" Kiba asked to which Naruto shrugged.

"Doesn't really matter to me, I still don't know where he is hiding our stuff. Speaking of which what did he take from you?"

Kiba was silent for a moment and Naruto heard him shuffle about.

"It's a gift for my sister's birthday next week, it's set of matching collars with trackers built into them. The collars are for her three partners."  
>"Three partners?" Naruto asked, obviously not following.<p>

"Ya, like Akamaru is my partner."

"Oh! You mean your pet?"

"Akamaru is not a pet!" Kiba shouted, standing up and growling at Naruto.

To most the growl would be nothing more than a subtle demonstration of Kiba's annoyance. To Naruto it was a challenge, and a threat. And Naruto backed down from no challenge.

"Pet, partner. It's all the same." Naruto shot back, standing up as well.

The two boys growled at one another for a moment before a third voice cut in.

"You know," Atsuo began causing the two boys to jump back in shock. "If your going to stalk someone you might want to do it without yelling." Before either of the two could react Atsuo jumped backwards off the roof onto a passing cart, waving at the boys he made a final smaller leap off the cart and onto the ground.

Who says you need chakra to jump from a roof?

**One Week Later**

Atsuo looked over the class in disgust.

"You guys are just flat out pathetic." He scolded.

Written behind him were the names of everyone in the class. Not a single person's name was scratched out.

"Not even all of you tried! Do you not care?"

"Well we have all month to get the stuff back don't we? Why should we rush?" Ami reason, paying the man before her no attention and instead filing her nails.

Atsuo blinked, utterly dumbfounded by the lack of motivation the girl had. Worse was the fact that several of the students nodded. Appalled by the students attitudes Atsuo shook his head.

"I am beginning to see why the Hokage decided to revamp the academy, you all disgust me and shame the village by calling yourself ninja. But motivating you isn't my job so I'll make a note to the hokage that before any more lessons are given you all are motivated lest the lessons be wasted. Now, for the few who actually tried are there any questions?"

A hand in the back shout up immediately and Atsuo's mood shifted seeing who it was.

"Why yes Naruto? You have a question?"

"You said you can't pull jutsu! So how did you undo my substitution?" Naruto demanded.

Laughing Atuso shook his head.

"I can't perform jutsu. I didn't _undo_ you substitution, a clever trick by the way, as much as I negated it. When you performed the substitution you aimed at what was in my hand, which just happened to be your purse as I paid for my meal." Grinning a fiendish grin Atsuo watched Naruto fuming at being reminded his money was being spent. "I cannot perform jutsu but I can sense chakra usage, so I simply changed what was in my hand the instant before you performed the substitution. Which would explain why you ended up with a paint bomb instead of your whole purse. You really need to stop leaving those about."

Naruto huffed and flopped back into his seat.

"Clever bastard." The blonde grumbled.

"Now, are there any other questions?"

"How did you mask your scent?" Kiba growled.

"Ah, that would be a trade secret and one I hold onto very dearly."

"But you said you would answer our questions!"

"No, I said I'd take them. And take them I have, how I choose to respond to them is entirely up to me." Atsuo responded, his eyes glimmering with mischief.

"Tch, that's unfair."

The dark haired man just shrugged.

"Perhaps, but a ninja's life is rather unfair. Now are there any other questions." Seeing no other questions forthcoming Atsuo shook his head yet again. _'They are so laid back its disgusting, a few of them have the drive and several more have the skill but so few actually have the will and determination. This is gonna be a long month.'_

**Three days later**

Kiba and Naruto were once more scanning the village in pursuit of their instructor, they had borrowed a pair of headsets from Kiba's older sister Hana in order to split up and search the town faster and still stay in contact with one another. While Kiba had Akamaru to keep him company as he traveled about Naruto was left by himself and that didn't sit well with him.

_'Wish Ino-chan was working with us, it's nice training with her in the morning but without the classes that is the only time I see her. Wonder if she could help with this?'_ Deciding to go with his gut Naruto took off in the direction of Ino's house.

"Oi, dog breath I'm gonna go see if I can recruit someone else for this man hunt." Naruto called over the headset.

"Let me guess your gonna go see if Ino wants to help aren't you?"

Naruto nearly fell over at that.

"How did you know?"

Sighing and shaking his head Kiba laughed.

"You show up at lunch every day with the smell of flowers covering you, it doesn't take a kage to put two and two together. Oh! And see if she knows any mind tricks that might help cause our last two attempts didn't go over so well." Kiba added, grinning at the thought of turning this man's mind inside out.

"Whatever dog breath, I'll let ya know in a minute." Going silent on the radio Naruto stopped running along the roof tops and instead dove down a back alley. Diving head first into the shadows Naruto vanished form sight the moment his body was fully immersed in the darkness.

Popping out on the other side of the village back an alley near Ino's house Naruto continued his forward movement only his angle had been reversed. Instead of diving downwards he shot out of the shadows, still in a dive position, going up and over the roof that had cast the shadow he came from. Rolling mid air Naruto timed it so he just missed the edge of the roof and instead landed on the street in front of Ino's house.

Grinning to himself Naruto was about to stride up to the house when a voice stopped him.

"Very impressive whiskers, though you landed a bit roughly so I'd only give you a seven out of ten."

"Now that's not fair, doesn't the fact that I started the jump from the other side of the village add into my score?" Naruto asked, playing along with Ino's game.

"Mmmm no, cause I know you used that shadow step trick to make the jump. Had you actually jumped all the way across the village then you'd be getting a perfect score."

"Tch, whatever. Say, me and dog breath are having a time locating Sir Pickpocket and we were wondering if you'd help us."

"Um, sure but you'll have to give me a minute. I have groceries to unload."

Naruto cocked his head to the side.

"Groceries? Are you serious? We are supposed to be focusing on stealing our stuff back and you are going grocery shopping? How silly."

Ino blinked, then narrowed her eyes and stomped off towards her house.

"Never mind these _silly_ groceries will take me all day. Have fun with dog boy." With that Ino shut the door in Naruto's face.

_'Crud, I do believe I said something wrong. Mmmm I'll make it up to her later, for now guess it's back to the hunt.'_ Naruto took off to the roof tops once more, jumping from house to house and stopping at all the main intersections, scanning the crowd and listening for the distinct sound of Atsuo's footstep. When he didn't hear what he was looking for Naruto continued on his way, every so often checking in on Kiba to see if the Inuzuka had stumbled across their target. It was nearly three hours later when Naruto's radio buzzed to life with noise.

"Yo, fox! I found the slippery joker, he is strolling right down the middle of the street right next to the old noodle man's stand. How fast can you be here?"

Grinning Naruto took a final leap landing beside a water tower, walking underneath it and into the shadows.

Kiba was waiting for a response when Naruto literally materialized out of Kiba's shadows.

"Here." Naruto announced, grinning at Kiba who was clutching his chest having suffered a mini heart attack.

"You bastard! Don't do that!" Kiba hissed, trying to keep his voice down so Atsuo wouldn't hear them, again.

Naruto just chuckled.

"Not my fault you spook like a cat."

Kiba growled at the blonde.

"Asshole."

Naruto clasp his hands together under his chin, slightly cocking his head to the side and batted his eyelashes at Kiba.

"Awww how sweet of you. Flattery will get you every where but I still I prefer girls, not to mention I want a vixen not a mutt." Naruto teased before turning away from Kiba, sniffing the air to locate Atsuo. "So you wanna try again or shall I?" He asked, trying to change the subject before Kiba could escalate their little spat.

Kiba huffed but got serious as well, electing to get revenge on the blonde later.

"Well since I _still_ don't know where he is keeping my stuff I'll let you have at him while I shadow him. Even if you fail I will try and get close enough to catch a whiff of the three collars. If I can do that then I'll know where they are." Shrugging Kiba stood up and transformed into a regular looking civilian. "Either way I win."

Naruto scowled at the boy but ignored Kiba as the feral youth leapt down onto the streets. Giving Kiba enough time to get into place Naruto tried to formulate a plan. While thinking a stand down the road caught his eye. Grinning Naruto took off.

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Atsuo mentally sighed.

_'I'll give them credit, they are the most tenacious of all the students. But they really need to work on chakra control, any time they perform any jutsu it's blatant what they are doing. Except for that blonde kid's vanishing act. Whatever that is he drops off my radar all together when he does that.'_

Glancing over his shoulder at Kiba Atsuo grinned. Several steps behind him Kiba and Akamaru were working together to make their henge appear more realistic. Kiba appeared to be a civilian father, holding two bags of groceries which were surprisingly real. Akakmaru on the other hand seemed to be a boy riding his father's shoulders while the pair went on a shopping trip. A _very_ realistic act, one they pulled off beautifully. If only they could keep the chakra surrounding their transformation more contained they would be invisible.

_'If this one can learn a bit more finesse he will be great at stealth and infiltration.'_

"Yo!" A boisterous voice shouted, cutting into Atsuo's thoughts.

Turning back around Atsuo saw that Naruto was standing in front of him and grinning.

Chuckling a bit Naruto held out his hand which contained his frog wallet.

"Gotcha!" Naruto leaned to the side so Kiba could see him. "Thanks for distracting him Kiba!"

Hearing a puff of smoke Atsuo figured Kiba had dropped the transformation in order to shout at the blonde.

While the two were arguing with one another Atuso frowned, he couldn't sense any chakra coming from the frog wallet Naruto was holding so it obviously wasn't a fake. But then when had the boy taken it? Discretely moving his hand to his side pocket and feeling it to ensure the frog wallet was there. The instant he touched the fabric of his pants however Naruto suddenly vanished from in front of him and appeared at his side with a kunai in his hand.

Naruto mentally smirked as he heard the fabric of Atsuo's shirt shift signaling that his arm was moving. Ignoring the rest of Kiba's rant Naruto tuned all other sounds out and listened to any sound coming from Atsuo. The instant he heard Atsuo move the cloth on his right leg Naruto vanished into the shadow of the building he had been standing in and reappeared from Atsuo's shadow. Using Atsuo's momentary shock as a distraction Naruto acted fast and slashed at the pocket, freeing his precious Gama-chan. Hearing the jingle of the coins within the wallet Naruto snatched the wallet up and vanished before Atsuo could react.

The exchange had barely even lasted a second, the civilians on the street blinked and Naruto was suddenly standing next to Kiba.

"Alright dog breath, I got my stuff back!" Naruto cheered before leaning in closer so Atsuo wouldn't hear. "I think the collars are on his left wrist, I smelt your scent coming from there. Want help with it?" Though he personally wanted to just celebrate his victory with some ramen Naruto figured he owed Kiba a hand.

"Na, now that I know where it is getting it back should be a breeze. But keep the walkie, just in case I need help later."

"Got it dog breath, see ya!" With that Naruto vanished back into Kiba's shadow.

"What is that trick?" Atuso asked, catching Kiba off guard.

"Uh, no idea. But um.. shouldn't you have left to go hide again?"

"Why should I hide?"

Kiba grinned and crouched down.

"Cause direct combat is my favor..." Kiba trailed off as three ANBU materialized around Atsuo.

Grinning Atsuo shook his head.

"It is in your favor but I'll clue you in on a rule that I didn't tell the class. You can't engage me in combat when you try to retrieve your property. With me having no chakra I can't fight, which is why I have this lovely little squad of ANBU watching me for the remainder of this month. I mean if you think you can take them on..." Atsuo trailed off, leaving the threat open ended.

Kiba simple gaped at the three ANBU.

"That's not fair! My entire plan revolved around an attack!"

Atsuo just shrugged.

"Too bad, so sad. Have a nice day!" With that Atsuo turned and walked off down the street while the three ANBU vanished into nothingness though Kiba was certain they weren't too far off.

Kiba watched the thief stroll of down the street before sighing and sucking in a breath.

"Alright Akamaru, we gotta get those collars back and we gotta get em back ourselves. No way are we letting that fox think he is better than us!"

Akamaru shook his head but didn't fuss. His partner was stubborn, to the point of being foolish. But that's just what made him so funny. Preparing to help however he could Akamaru hopped down from Kiba's head and gave a yap off encouragement.

8888

Naruto was hopping from roof to roof in the direction of Ino's house. After returning home and checking on just how much had been taken from his Gama-chan Naruto had decided he had plenty to eat out and take a friend with him. So he was determined to take Ino out to eat in order to get back on her good side.

Sadly fate had other ideas.

Half way to Ino's house a hand fell on Naruto's shoulder stopping him in his tracks mid jump. Landing flat on his back Naruto let out a groan.

"Ugh, what was that?"

"You know, it really is fun to sneak up on you while your blindfolded." Anko teased while standing over the blonde.

Naruto heard Anko's voice and scowled.

"What do you want Anko?"

"No more 'Hebi-hime' for me? How sad!" Anko mock whined before plopping down on Naruto's stomach, turning him into a couch.

Grunting Naruto attempted to glare at her through the bandages.

"Get off me! I want to go eat!"

"Good! Then what say you I treat you to an all you can eat buffet at Ichiraku's and we can call it even?" Anko offered, glad the conversation had led where she wanted it to go without her making it obvious.

When Naruto stayed silent for a minute she thought that he was considering her offer.

"The old man put you up to this didn't he?"

"What!" Anko shouted, shocked the kid guessed it. "Can't I just want to make amends?"

"No. So then the old man did put you up to this, in fact I bet you tried to get out of it. Begged for an S-rank or something didn't you."

"Hehe well, I don't know about _begged_."

Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Get off me Anko."

"Not gonna happen gaki, since you guessed it yes the old man did order this. Now are you gonna come peacefully or do I have to make you?"

Naruto simply raised an eyebrow.

"Make me? You can't even catch me!" With that Naruto vanished into the shadow Anko was casting on him.

Anko winced as she fell the few inches to the ground now that her seat had suddenly vanished from beneath her. Standing up and rubbing her rear Anko growled, seeing Naruto standing under a water tower a distance away.

"Get back here! You're gonna go out to eat, even if I have to fuckin spoon feed you!"

Naruto gave her the finger before vanishing into the shadows once more.


	9. Chapter 9

**Alright folks! The ball is rolling once more on this story. Had a sever case of writers block i finally managed to smash through it in order to bring you this short and sweet little chapter. Enjoy and expect more updates on this story as well as on many of my others.**

**Impure Perfection**

* * *

><p><strong>Shadows, Seals and Snakes Oh My!<strong>

Naruto pressed himself up against the wall and tried to slow his breathing in an attempt to remain as silent as possible. His cloak was torn up at the bottom and is left sleeve was singed and the rest of his clothes were tattered up thanks to the multiple times he had crashed to the ground. He had several cuts across his cheek as well, all of them in roughly the same spot. Overall he looked like a mess. And all of this fuss was because he refused to go to Ichiraku's and enjoy an all you can eat buffet courtesy of Anko.

'_Crazy lady! Why won't she quit?'_ Naruto mentally fumed. Not only was he ticked because Anko messed up his clothes but because the snake jounin had interrupted his dinner plans with Ino. Now he was going to have to deal with an irate Ino tomorrow in class.

Hearing the faintest of sounds Naruto froze and held his breath. When he heard the sound again and confirmed it sounded like a hiss the blonde cursed and fell back into the shadows to try and hide again.

A moment after the blonde had vanished a brown snake popped its head around the corner.

"**Anko-ssama really hass given uss a tesst in trying to corner thiss blonde. He iss crafty. Ah well the longer he fightss it the worsse it will be on him when Anko-ssama inevitably catchess him." **Chuckling at the thought of what all Anko would do once she caught the blonde the snake summon continued its search of the city.

**8888**

Anko was crouched on a roof waiting for one of her snake summons to summon her to their location. After the first few times of Naruto vanishing using his little shadow trick she had grown tired of chasing him down herself. She currently had over four hundred snakes patrolling the city in search of the blonde and as soon as one of them saw Naruto they would summon her to their location. Then all she had to do was catch him before he could vanish again. Though that was easier said than done. Ever since night had fallen Naruto had become a fucking phantom. Appearing and disappearing at will thanks to the abundance of shadows.

Growling in annoyance Anko fought against the urge to grow impatient. This was the final hour that Ichiraku's was open for the night. After this she would have to wait until tomorrow to take the gaki out. _'Though that doesn't mean I can't just catch the gaki tonight and hold him hostage till tomorrow so I don't have to track him down again.' _Grinning in glee at the thought Anko's annoyance vanished. Just in time too as she felt the tug of being summoned. Pulling out her kunai and preparing for the two second window of opportunity she was about to get Anko let the snake summon her and vanished in a puff of smoke as she was pulled through space to the snake's location.

Naruto felt the chakra usage as Anko was summoned and heard the puff of smoke indicating that she had arrived. Cursing he took off through the night. He would have ducked back into the shadows but sadly he was running out of shadows to hide in. Every time he used a shadow to vanish the snake that had been chasing him to that shadow camped out in the shadow waiting for him to return. He had only figured that little tidbit of information out an hour ago when he had tried doubling back through the shadows only to step out to the sight of a grinning Anko. He had narrowly escaped that time, though his coat had taken the brunt of the damage. Hearing a kunai being hurled at him Naruto pulled his sword out of its seal and turned around mid air in order to cut the kunai in half.

"Screw this game of cat and mouse!" Naruto roared as he turned around and prepared to take on the snake jounin.

**8888**

Rhino let out a sigh of contentment as he looked over his shop. He had closed the shop early tonight so he could a take a hot date out and now that the shop was clean all he had to do was lock up and head out.

"Business was good today, nothing in the shop broke down, and I even got some sake for doing a friend a favor. Not a bad day all in all." Rhino mused to himself as he turned the lights in the back of the shop off and began to walk to the font of the shop, turning off any machines or lights that were still on as he went. He had made it halfway through the main parlor when he heard a familiar cry of, "party!" Acting on instinct he ran through hand seals before slamming his hands to the ground and activating all of the seals he had built into the walls turning the shop into a veritable fort. Standing up and turning around to see the boy who was undoubtedly behind him Rhino couldn't help but be amused by the condition of the kid.

The blonde was missing his right boot while his pants legs had been burnt up to the knees and what remained of the right sleeve of his pants was barely hanging on at the hip. His shirt had scratches covering it and in several places there was traces of blood seeping through. The trench coat was gone all together.

"Well kid, who, or better yet what, did you tick off this time?" Rhino chided playfully as he strolled over to the cooler to snag a bottle of water for Naruto.

"Ugh, accidently stepped on a snake's tail. Turned out the snake had more bite than I had expected."

"Haha so I take it Anko is close to tracking you down?" Rhino asked as he tossed the bottle of water to the blonde.

Naruto snatched the bottle out of the air and glared at the man.

"You knew?"

"Yep, sorry kid but I have a date tonight."

Naruto's eyes went wide in panic. His safe house was vanishing.

"I can keep the store in check while you're out! I promise I won't touch anything! I'll even buy you two crates of sake!" Naruto pleaded.

His pleas fell on deaf eyes as Rhino merely shook his head.

"No can do kid. The snake already bought me out. And first come…"

"First serve!" Anko finished as she strolled through the front door of the building. The sadistic grin on her face had lost the playful undertone it usually carried. Probably about the same time Anko had lost her trench coat to one of Naruto's wind jutsu.

Naruto reeled backwards in panic.

"Wha!? How'd you get in?" The blonde demanded in a panic as he back peddled.

"The old fart," Anko started as she jerked her thumb over her should at Rhino who was watching the scene with a look of amusement on his face. "Gave me a bypass seal that allows me to enter the premise."

"Whatever she paid you I'll double it!" Naruto pleaded desperately to which Rhino shook his head.

"She hooked me up with one of her hot friends kid, I doubt you have any single lady friends that could top the Ice Queen of Konoha."

"Hehe, Nee-chan is gonna kill me for setting her up on a blind date, but it was worth it to take our your little trump card. Now, you and I are gonna chat."

"Dream on Hebi-hime!" Naruto shouted as he flung a wad of white paper at Anko.

The jounin scoffed and side stepped the flashbang. Those were only useful if they exploded in front of the target. Otherwise they just cast a large…

"Shi…" Anko cursed as she tried to dart forward in time. Sadly the flashbang exploded directly behind her casting a large thick shadow right over Naruto.

Just like that Naruto vanished.

And just like that she felt one of her summons summoning her as she vanished in a puff of smoke.

Rhino shook his head and rumbled with laughter as he deactivated the seals around the shop.

"Well, now that the nights entertainment is over time to go pick up my date."

**8888**

Sarutobi grunted and nodded.

"This plan is acceptable. If you can assure me that the target can be lead into the convoy's predetermined path without it appearing planned I will be certain the, correct, individuals will be present for the incident. The only complication is what we do with him once we've extracted the information we need and erase the information we do not."

"Really?" Danzo questioned. "I had figured that would be the most simplistic aspect of this operation. Is Iwa currently not in possession of several of our own? Simply trade the target back for one of our own."

"A prisoner exchange in the middle of peace time?" Sarutobi pondered aloud as he refilled his pipe. "Does that not seem oddly suspicious? It is usually only high value individuals who are exchanged during peace times. The others are abandoned for the sake of maintaining the peace." Having relit his pipe Sarutobi leaned back in his office chair to await his comrade's response.

It still shocked him how quickly the two of them had managed to get back into their old rhythms. They were still glacial towards one another, but that had always been the case.

"Not really." Danzo replied as he closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. "Though, if you feel it would be too suspicious then it would be easy to simply arrange an accident in prison."

Sarutobi shook his head immediately.

"That is low, old friend. Even for you."

Danzo merely shrugged.

"Perhaps, but that does not mean it is not an option."

Sarutobi opened his mouth to respond when suddenly a blonde haired lad clad in black seemingly dropped out of thin air and fell against the floor and lay there for a brief moment.

"Ahh… Peace and quite." The boy groaned out as he laid sprawled out on the floor.

"Nice to see you too Naruto-kun." Sarutobi said in a bemused tone.

Naruto rolled over and mock saluted the old man.

"Yo. What's up Old Man. You know, sending Anko after me wasn't very nice."

"I take it she would be the cause of your current state of dress." Sarutobi teased as he waved his hand at Naruto to indicate the many burns, tears, and holes in the boy's attire.

"Of course! Who else is not only reckless enough to use lethal force but also relentless enough to run me into the ground?"

Sarutobi chuckled.

"Well, I mean you could just let her take you out to eat."

Naruto snorted in disgust at the idea.

"Yeah. No. I'd rather starve than have her try and apologize cause you forced her to."

"Coming from a street urchin that's big talk." Danzo cut in.

Naruto snapped to his feet and faced the direction the voice had come from even as he summoned his sword.

"The hell!? Who are you? Where did you come from?"

Danzo quirked an eyebrow at the odd boy.

"And I am to answer you why?"

"Because you are a bloody phantom! I can't hear you breathing or your heat beating and I can't detect even the faintest smell from you. Hell, I can't even detect your chakra signature. You literally don't exist by any of my senses."

"You are not even a genin yet you believe your senses are that reliable?"

"They aren't that reliable but I can at least trust them to tell me when someone is in the room."

"Calm down Naruto." Sarutobi chided wearily and shook his head. The two were so like one another, conniving and elusive, yet their differing ages and levels of maturity automatically bred hostility. "This is Danzo Shimura my new advisor." Seeing the scowl on Naruto's face Sarutobi chuckled. "Don't worry. This one won't bother you near as much as the old ones. As for why you can't detect his presence, it probably has to do with his title as the Darkness of Shinobi. This man is one of the greatest stealth agents in the history of Konoha and has mastered the art of **Phantom Walking**."

"Please," Danzo interrupted in a sarcastically cheery tone. "do spill my story to a nobody kid."

"Hey!" Naruto protested. "I am not a nobody."

"Pardon. Do spill my story to the nobody jinchuuriki."

"Anyways," Sarutobi interrupted trying to diffuse the situation before it became too caustic to extinguish. "would you like to explain to me how you got in here?"

"Huh? Wathca talkin about Old Man? I've always been able to shadow step in here. I just usually use the front door so that I don't spook the ANBU you always keep in…. Huh? Where are they?"

"Where are who?"

"The three ANBU you always have in here with you?"

"Hmm. Seems the boy's senses are in deed reliable." Danzo said trying to prompt another bout of anger from the lad.

Naruto scowled at the old war hawk but said nothing.

"My personal guard has been dismissed for the time being as Danzo and I were holding a private meeting here." Sarutobi answered. "Which again takes me back to the question of how you got in here."

"Again I just shadow stepped in here. You've seen me do it before Old Man."

"I have, but seeing as this room has third tier barrier seals active at the moment you should not being able to enter this room under any circumstance."

"Woah! Third tier? Rhino-sensei has only shown me first and second tier stuff! Can I check out the seals?" Naruto asked excitedly causing Sarutobi to sigh and rub the bridge of his nose in aggravation.

"No you may not 'check out' the highly classified and well guarded seals that secure the most confidential room in the Hokage Building. Now, once again how did you enter this room? If you know what a third tier seal is capable of then you should understand my confusion."

"Oh I have no idea how I got in here. I just did what I normally do and wound up here. I wasn't even fazed by the seals." Naruto paused and withdrew his sword back into its seal as he crossed his arms to contemplate the matter. "But, then again the barrier seals around the village never flare up when I move through them using the shadow step. So maybe seals just can't pick up the shadow step."

"A mode of transportation that negates seals?" Danzo questioned though the intent in his voice made it clear to the two other occupants of the room he was more than just simply interested in the technique.

And Naruto did not appreciate the interest.

"Oh no you don't! This is my own personal family jutsu. No stealing it phantom man."  
>"Family jutsu? I take it you've documented it as such."<p>

"Not yet but I will as soon as I can get it down on paper!"

"Would be such a shame if that paper were to vanish."

"You can't!" Naruto shouted in horror.

"Actually," Sarutobi cut in. "Naruto, the only way to guarantee your jutsu remains with you would be to not write it down at all. You see, even those jutsu that are marked as family jutsu and written down as such in village archives are privy to those who try hard enough. That is why many of the higher level clan techniques are merely passed down orally rather than through written instruction."

"But, but then it won't be known as _my_ family jutsu."

"Is it more important for the jutsu to be known as something in the archives or something on the battle field?" Danzo queried causing Naruto to pause and think.

Or at least he would have had it not been for the incessant pounding that came from the door a moment later.

"Oi!" Anko's voice called through the door. "I know the brat is in there. I've checked everywhere else he might be hiddin'. Now, cough him up."

Sarutobi sighed and flopped back in his chair.

"Well old friend it looks like our meeting has come to an end for tonight."

"No no!" Naruto pleaded. "Don't kick me out! This is the last safe haven I have in Konoha!"

"While that might be so this meeting is not for your ears. So sadly…" With a mere wave of his hand Sarutobi deactivated the seals around the room.

As fast as the light of the seals had dissipated so had Anko burst into the room.

"Gotcha!" Anko shouted even as Naruto attempted to vanish again only to be pinned down by the snakes that shot out from Anko's sleeve. "Oh no you don't gaki. You're coming with me and that's final."

"Old Man! Save me!" Naruto begged as he fought against the mass of snakes that were hauling him out the door.

Sarutobi merely grinned and waved at the bound boy as he was dragged out the door. As soon as the pair were gone Sarutobi placed a palm on the desk and sent a pulse of chakra through the seals in the room once again putting up the barrier.

"Now, where were we?" The old monkey questioned as he refilled his pipe and lit it.

"I believe we were discussing seal evading techniques."

**8888**

Shino and Shikamaru mutually quirked their eyebrows at the huffy blonde girl sitting between them as she viciously scribbled and on the pad of paper before her. The two reclusive strategists shared a look before both shrugged. At the start of class she had marched to their bench, whose third member was usually Choji, and ordered the two move so she could sit there. Seeing as neither of the two had desired to instigate a dispute with the strong willed woman both had obliged without question.

When the now seatless Choji had arrived he had taken one look at Ino before simply moving to Ino's old spot at the back of the class.

Had this been done before the drastic changes in the academy had taken place the class would have been abuzz with gossip about the change in seating. However, due to many of the gossips having been weeded out by the recent changes the class took little to no notice of the difference. Since it had finally reached the mid point of the month many who had been slacking off recently were now discussing with one another how they planned to obtain their items.

Atsuo and Naruto walked into class at roughly the same time laughing and joking with one another about some mysterious matter. Once in the room Naruto gave Atsuo a salute before leaping over the class to land in his seat.

"Morning." Naruto greeted as he waved at the lad beside him who smelt of ashen earth and a wide array of spices ranging from basil and sage to garlic and coriander. "Names Naruto."

Choji chuckled and nodded.

"I know. You're hard to miss. My names Choji." Choji said as he withdrew his hand from his bag of chips long enough to shake Naruto's hand. "So what do you think today's class is gonna be like? Another short QnA?"

"Mmmm, possible. Though since we're half way through the month he might try and do something to motivate the class some…." Naruto's sentence was cut off midway as a horrendous screeching sound tore through the classroom bringing all conversation to a halt.

The sound was courtesy of Atsuo who was slowly and meticulously dragged his nails down the chalkboard eliciting a cacophony of tissue rending notes of pure agony. With a final jerk of his hand Atsuo brought his hand up to examine his nails.

"Now that I've got your attention how about we take a look at the chalkboard. Since some of you have made some progress I would like to congratulate you publicly and shall do so by marking off the names of those who have managed to get their stuff back. And" Atsuo teased as he picked up the chalk once more. "I'll even do it in the order of who got it first."

To everyone's immense shock the first name scratched off the board was Sakura Haruno.

"Wha!?" Several students shouted out in unison. Even Sasuke, the ever stoic Uchiha, seemed perturbed by the change of events.

"How in the hell did she do that?" Ami demanded.

Instead of answering Atuse merely grinned and wagged a finger at the girl.

"Ah, ah. Secrets such as that cost sweetie. There are no free questions in the world of shinobi. If you've got the clout to order the answers then you need not worry, but until then you better learn to steal, bribe, and borrow any and all info. Cause I can guarantee you it won't be coming to you for free. Now, if you're done I shall move onto the next name."

Ino Yamanaka was the next name to be marked off.

Again the room exploded into cries of shock and demands to know how it had been done.

In answer Atsuo merely pulled out two more marble sized balls.

The class's reaction was immediate as they all ducked behind their desk or each other.

Grinning Atsuo tucked the two balls back into his pocket.

"I really got to hand it to you for showing me the paint bomb trick by the way Naruto. And I shall because you are the next one to be crossed off." Sure enough Atsuo moved to the board and crossed off Naruto's name.

However, instead of moving onto a fourth name Atsuo merely set the chalk down.

"Wait wait that's it?" Yuki questioned as he turned and looked at his two buddies. "You bastards lied and said you had yours already!"

As Yuki and his hopefully still friends went at it Atsuo continued to speak.

"Yes. This is everyone who has managed to successfully get their stuff back. However, since you seem so hung up about it I'll but a dash by those who have at least attempted to get their stuff back."

Sasuke Uchiha, Kiba Inuzuka, Choji Akimichi, Yuki Onodera, Sanji Yami. These were the only names with a dash beside them.

"Now," Atsuo began as he set the chalk down once more. "if your name ain't crossed out or it doesn't have a dash by it you'd better get your acts together cause if you fail this month your asses are mine for another two months."

Eyes widened across the room.

"That's right squirts." Atsuo continued as he saw several across the room suddenly start to pay more attention than they had in the last two weeks combined. "If you fail any of these monthly sessions you get held back two months. The first will be intensive study and practice sessions everyday of the week from six in the morning to six at night for a month. The second month will be giving you a second try at passing the very test you are taking right now. So either get your asses in gear now, or get used to seeing me. Now, are there any questions?"

Hands went up across the room.

**8888**

Ino huffed as she finally made it out of the school and began to march down the street to her house. Even after Atsuo had answered all the class's questions they had all flocked to her and Sakura to ask them for advice. They would have gone to Naruto as well but the blonde had vanished as soon as class had been dismissed.

And that annoyed her almost as much as the class pestering her with questions for the past hour. Almost. The fact at least a dozen students had all asked the same question made it far more annoying. But still it got under her skin that the blonde had seemingly ignored her. She was supposed to be ignoring him. She had left a note on her door last night telling him she was gonna skip practice this morning. She hadn't sat next to him. Hell, she hadn't even so much as looked at the guy and he didn't even seem fazed by it. Next time she talked to that baka, after she decided he had suffered long enough, she was gonna…

"Hey Ino-chan!" Naruto cheered from right beside her. As in not a hair's breadth away beside her.

With a shriek the girl leapt away.

"The hell did you come from?"

"Huh?" Naruto responded as he cocked his head to the side. "I've been walking beside you for the past three or four blocks."

"You were?"

"Mmhmm. You must have really be focused on something to not notice me. That or your natural blondeness was shining through again."

Ino blinked.

"Again!? Listen here whiskers…"

"So you wanna get lunch?" Naruto asked cutting her off.

Ino fumbled for words. She was trying to be angry at the boy for something or other. Not being taken out to eat.

"No I don't! what I want is…"

"Too bad cause Hebi-hime promised to give me an all you can eat offer at any restaurant in town."

"You weren't even gonna pay for the date? What sort of…"

"Who said it was a date?" Naruto questioned. This time he actually stopped walking and turned to face Ino. Curiosity and confusion were written clear across his face.

The color drained from Ino's face for a moment before it rushed back ten fold turning her cheeks a crimson red.

"Uh, I mean. Uh, since you were asking me out to lunch I figured it would be considered a date but…" Ino trailed off as Naruto's laughter penetrated the panic of her mind.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Naruto panted out between bouts of laughter. "It was too good an opportunity to pass up." Sucking in a breath and standing up straight Naruto shook his head. "My bad. But seriously you wanna snag a…"

"You bastard!" Ino screamed as she delivered a brutal kick to Naruto's chest sending the blonde sprawling.

Even as he hit the ground and rubbed his chest Naruto continued to laugh.

"Stop laughing!" Ino shouted as she went to stand over the blonde and kick him while he was down. Only, the moment she stood over him he vanished from sight.

"Alright, alright no more laughing." Naruto called out as he walked out of the shadow of a nearby building with his hands held up in surrender. "Truce."

"No!" Ino huffed before marching down the street.

"No? But you hit me! That makes us even."

"No. I hit you cause you were being a grade a ass. For that we are even. But I'm still ticked at you."

"Wha!? What for?"

Instead of answering the boy Ino simply took to the rooftops in hopes of ditching the boy. Sadly he was far more tenacious than most.

"Hey hey get back here!" Naruto shouted as he too took to the rooftops.

"No! Go away!" Ino shouted back before picking up the pace.

Naruto growled and did the exact same.

Soon the two were off on a merry chase through the village. At first they stuck strictly to rooftops in a competition of agility. However, before long all manner of mischief came into the mix. Dashing through shops. Using changing rooms to try and slip away. Smoke bombs. Flash bangs. Any genjutsu known. Finally Naruto cheated and used the shadow of a building to step out of Ino's own shadow and tag her on the shoulder.

"Tag!" Naruto shouted before taking off.

Ino blinked. Blinked again. And then couldn't help but chuckle and shake her head. He thought it was a game? Judging by the fact he was standing on a water tower a building or two over and shaking his rear at her he obviously did. Though, after running around for the past two hours non stop she was rather winded. No way she could keep this up for another hour or two. Unless…

Reaching down to her feet Ino quickly tapped the seals on the bottom of her shoes to release the chakra stored within. The rush that came with the chakra being released into her system forced an involuntary yelp of surprise from Ino's lips. _This_ was what Naruto ran on? Screw an adrenaline rush. This was the good stuff!

Laughing uncontrollably for a moment Ino forced her mind to think through the haze of energy that now flooded her system. What had she been doing? She had needed energy. Energy to chase someone. Her eyes scanned the immediate area, which seemed so vibrant now that her entire system was filled with a new foreign energy, and settled on the brightest shade of yellow in the vicinity. Striking blonde hair belonging to one impatient looking boy. Impatient? Well let's not keep em waiting!

With a burst of speed Ino launched off the roof and straight at Naruto who gave a shout of surprise at the sudden movement.

"Hey hey! Now we're cooking!" Naruto shouted before he took off into town.

"Get back here whiskers!" Ino shouted even as she grinned like a loon and took off like an arrow after the boy.

**8888**

Kiba growled in frustration. He had nearly gotten the collars back last time. A combo between him and Akamaru had almost successfully snatched the collars off the man's wrist. Sadly Kiba had been too slow and before he could try again the ANBU had stepped in. Now, Atsuo had moved the collars to his waist and was wearing them as if they were a single combined belt. Not to mention he had clearly marked who had their stuff and who didn't so it would only be a matter of time before ol' fox boy came to see if he needed any help. And no way no how was he gonna let blondie think he needed help. Just meant he needed to be faster and more precise this time. Using a smoke bomb would probably help too. Ah well he could stew over it later. For now he needed to… What the heck was that sound?

Turning his attention away from Atsuo and looking around at the other roof tops he sniffed the air several times. Scowling he shook his head.

"Figures those two would be prancing about the village causing a ruckus. They already did their work for the month." Kiba muttered before turning his attention back to Atsuo. At least, he would have had Naruto not leapt out of his shadow.

"Hey dog breath! Thanks for the stable shadow."

"Wha…" Kiba began to question only to be interrupted by Ino as she bounded into sight two rooftops over.

"Whiskers! I said no shadow stepping!"

"Hehe, see ya dog breath. Gotta run!" With that Naruto took off again.

Kiba rolled his eyes at the two and once again tried to focus only for Ino to tap him on the head a moment later.

"Tag! You're it!" The grinning blonde called out even as she kept running.

Kiba blinked. Blinked again and went to look at Akamaru for answers only to find the dog missing. A bark from behind him revealed that Akamaru was running away from him with Ino.

"Traitor!" Kiba hollered as he took chase. Screw getting the collars back. He would not stand to be ditched by his own dog. Or to lose a game of tag for that matter. What could one day of play hurt?

**8888**

Anko impatiently tapped her foot as she stood outside the Ichiraku restaurant. She had only agreed to let Naruto go to class yesterday in exchange for him promising to meet her for lunch.

The sun had set an hour ago.

"I swear when I see that gaki I'm gonna skin him, filet him, sautee him, cook him into a big pot of ramen, and then feed him to my snakes."

"Now, now Anko-san," Ayame called out from behind the bar as she served another customer a bowl of soup. "I'm sure Naruto-kun has a perfectly good reason for not showing up for lunch. Besides he's bound to show up soon. He can't be away from the stand for more than two days."

Anko snorted.

"And why's that? He addicted or something?"

"Oh no, he just never buys enough groceries to stay away that long."

Anko laughed at the absurd reasoning and turned to sit back down at the stand when she heard an explosion and a shriek of fury. Poking her head back out of the stand she saw Naruto and the Inuzuka kid sprinting down the street with massive grins on their face. Behind them an orange colored Ino was chasing them with a righteous fury blazing in her eyes.

"Get back here you bastards!" Ino hollered.

"You know … she's gonna … kill us right?" Kiba panted out as he fought to speak and run at the same time. This non-stop game of tag was taking it out of him. How Ino and Naruto could keep going he had no idea. The sound of chuckling coming from his left pulled his mind from his thoughts.

"Na." Naruto panted out. "Just you."

"Me!?"

"Yeah. I don't have to out run her. I just gotta out run you." Naruto said as a foxy grin spread across his face.

Before Kiba could figure out what the blonde was talking about Naruto threw a bundle of ninja at wire at Kiba's feet.

"You son of a…" Was all Kiba could get out before his face impacted the dirt.

Anko laughed at the underhanded play. She laughed even harder as Ino sprinted right past the fallen boy without a second glance.

Naruto, who had thought the chase over came to a halt right along side Anko.

"Evening Hebi-hime. I hope you don't mind if I brought… Oof!" Naruto cried out as Ino tackled him to the ground.

"Gotcha!"

"Eh-he. No hard feelings right Ino-chan?"

Ino narrowed her eyes and was about to throttle the lad beneath her when a wolf whistle caught her attention.

"Hey hey, either get a room or got off each other." A passerby called causing Ino and Naruto both to flush crimson and scramble back to their feet.

"My my gaki. Didn't know you managed to bag and tag a little lady already. Must be the new threads."

"My old clothes were perfectly fine!"

"For being a traffic cone perhaps. So I take it you are extending my _generous_ offer to these two as well?"

"Yep! In exchange I won't totally clean out your wallet."

"Gee thanks, cause I mean I don't really need to pay rent or anything."

"Well I mean you could always go stay with…" Naruto cut his sentence short as a kunai appeared under his jaw pressing upwards just hard enough to draw blood.

"Finish it and die gaki." Anko threatened before retracting the blade. "Now are you going to continue being rude or are you going to introduce me to your guests?"

"Oh! My bad. Hebi-hime meet the lovely Ino Yamanaka." Naruto said as he motioned to the blonde at his side. "And Ino you already know Hebi-hime here as Anko, a.k.a the crazy snake lady of Konoha. My other friend is…"

"Die!" Kiba shouted as he slugged Naruto straight in the jaw and sent the blonde to the ground. "'Just gotta out run you' my ass! That is the last time I ever team up with you." With a final snort Kiba faced Anko. "Names Kiba Inuzuka and I already know you from class."

Anko gave a bark of laughter and looked down at Naruto who was groaning and getting back to his feet. "Gaki, I like your friends."

"Uh-huh, I like em too when they aren't trying to kill me."

**8888**

Naruto sauntered into class and immediately froze as a horrible tingle ran down his spine. There was a disturbance in the force and he had no idea what it might be.

"Oi, fox!" Kiba called out from his spot on the front row. "Sit next to me."

Naruto blinked.

"Uh…"

"Naruto sits next to me dog boy!" Ino shouted.

Naruto chuckled nervously and shrugged before leaping back to his seat in the back. Only instead of being greeted only by Ino's scent of rain and flowers a second scent of cherry blossoms and ink greeted him as well. He was also greeted by a tension in the air so thick that even blindfolded he picked up on. Now he knew why Kiba had tried to catch his attention. He didn't know what the issue was, but he had no desire to get in the middle of it. Trying not to instigate himself he relegated himself to silently waiting to find out who would be crossed out this time.

Last week a large portion of the class had managed to snag their items back from Atsuo. All the clan heirs had succeeded and at least half the other kids had managed to do so as well. Seems they had the skill but were just poorly motivated. Which he could see for Shikamaru, but the others he didn't quite understand. Ah well.

"So, Naruto how did you manage to get your items back from Atsuo-sensei?" The girl of cherry blossoms and ink asked from Naruto's left. Sakura he thought her name was. She had been the first to get her stuff back hadn't she?

"Meh, I used Kiba as a distraction and then quickly took it back. Pretty lame. What I wanna know is how did you do it. You were the first one to get your stuff back. What did you do?"

The girl giggled, and again Naruto couldn't help but to think how he liked that sound.

"Well, actually, that is better than what I did."

"Huh? Watcha mean?"

"Well I…"

Whatever else she had said Naruto missed as something ghosted over his senses and tuned out whatever she had said. Turning and looking back at the door Naruto shook his head in confusion. He was seeing double. The door seemed to open twice, only the first time seemed to be fake. Whatever it was didn't matter near as much as the man who walked through the door. He was a tall and frighteningly pale man with jet black slicked hair and eerily shimmering golden yellow eyes that were slitted. The man wore an odd outfit that consisted of white loose fitting shirt with a long sleeved black shirt beneath it and a pair of grey pants. The oddest part of his attire was the purple rope he wore around his waist.

The man grinned at the class and everyone shivered in their seats even as Akamaru whined and buried himself in Kiba's jacket.

"Greetings. I will be your new instructor from now on. I will address you by your last name and you will answer the first time I call on you or there will be… _consequences_. Understood?"

Every head in the classroom nodded at once. No one, not Naruto or Kiba and not the rich kids dared cross this strange man that made it hard to breath let alone think.

"Good." The man seemed to purr. "And you shall refer to me as nothing but Orochimaru-sama."


End file.
